Not Strange, Just Different
by SortaPsychotic
Summary: This is a very long story on how Stein got to be the sadistic, crazy meister that we all know and love. I am fairly new at this, but I feel it is very good and I want you all to read it! And you better review, or Stein will come and get you with the help of yours truly. And please do not base it just off the first chapter; read beyond that. It gets a lot better from that point.
1. Stein's First Day At the Academy

**I decided I would try to write a story that has actual chapters rather than having it just be one big thing. This is mainly due to how long it's going to be. I mean, there is over 7,000 word for the first chapter. I have a feeling I will be able to update it pretty quickly, as I can write about 5,000 words in a few hours usually, I just need to have something to write. This doesn't have much of a plot to it, it's basically just a story of Stein going to the academy. Sorry if he seems a little wimpy now, I decided I was going to add in his more sadistic and tough side more and more as he trains. I really hope I did well with the dialogue, that's what always gets me. Please review and tell me how it is, I would really appreciate it. I tried my best, I really think this is going to turn out really well.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 1- Stein's First Day At the Academy

It was little Franken Stein's first day at the academy and he didn't really know what to expect. His father was the best meister to have graduated at that point, and he figured some of his talents would be genetically passed onto him. He suggested that he should go to the DWMA to train, he believes that he has great potential. What they don't realize yet is just how much potential he really has.

At the time, all the 12-year-old boy really did was read. He constantly read stuff out of Biology, Chemistry, and Physics textbooks, this is what interested him. Not playing with artificially dyed plastic toys that have, in essence, no use at his age. Most of the developement that happens from playing with toys should have happened by now, so he didn't really see any point in it. He was always in his room with the door shut and locked.

His room was usually rather dark, as it had no windows, only a few lamps to add some light. It was just enough to be able to read, but it did strain his eyes a little bit, perhaps that's why he needed glasses as he got older. His room was rather bare, only containing a bed, a chair, a desk, the lamps that were mentioned earlier, some bookshelves, a waste bin, and of course a closet. His walls were a very light grey, and his floor was a dark wood. The boy's sheets were plain white, just like his pillow, and were covered by a black comforter. There were two sources of color, however, his waste bin and chair. The waste bin was a medium green, and his chair was completely green. Almost like the chair he has as an adult, just without the white and the stitches. He didn't usually use his bed because he never really went to sleep by choice. Most nights he would just end up falling asleep at his desk while reading, which annoyed him to no end because he claimed it to be "a waste of time", much like I do.

The silver-haired boy's choice of clothes were plain just like his room. It was a gray long sleeved shirt with a pair of shorts being the same color, along with boots. His mother tried to get him to wear the same colorful clothes all the other boys wore, but he didn't care for them much, and luckily his father agreed, so he didn't have to wear them. Him and his father are very similar, they are basically the same. Him and his mother, however, are complete opposites. When his father told her that he would be enrolling in the academy, she was just thankful that he would finally be meeting some children his age, rather than sitting in his room all day.

When walking to the academy on his first day, Stein began wondering what the other kids would be like, as he hasn't made much contact with other human beings besides his parents up until this point. He wondered if they would be okay to be around, or if they would be annoying and bothersome. He wondered what they would look like. He didn't know how they would act towards him, if they would be nice or mean. He would just have to figure all of this out when he got there.

He wasn't overly thrilled about going, but he was excited about learning. He had heard some of his father's stories of when he went on missions, they were always exciting. He wanted to learn how to defeat people like his father could, he wanted to become strong. Right now he was a little wimpy, but only physically. He didn't have much fat on him, or muscle. He knew he would have to build his strength over time. He then suddenly noticed he was at the stairs leading up to the academy.

He began walking up the long staircase, noticing all the other kids at the top. They were... different, not like him. They, of course, were wearing the brightly colored clothes. There skin had actual color to it, it looked softer. And their hair was different as well. No one's was gray, all black, brown, blonde, or red. They all seemed to be talking to each other, they seemed to be enjoying it. One thing he noticed was that they were in little groups. What group would he go to? Would he have a group at all? He tried to not think about that, his priority was training, not talking to people.

As he got to the top of the stair case, people began to notice him. They all started to stare, like there was almost something wrong with him. Stein saw that everyone was looking at him, so he glared at them. They seemed to not like that, as they all quickly looked away at just about the same time. They soon began talking to each other once again. But this time instead of it being casual conversations, the topic became Stein.

"Look at him, he's so.. plain," One girl said to the other people in her little clique. The others quickly began adding their own opinion onto her's.

"Oh I know, I mean look at his hair. It's gray, who has gray hair?"

"And his clothes too. Could he look any more boring?"

They all started laughing to each other, which Stein heard. He ignored them all as he reminded himself of the reason why he was there. He couldn't let himself get caught up in that, it would just waste his time. From what he could conclude so far, they were mean. But that didn't bother him much. He went to the main office to get his schedule, he just wanted to get to his room and get started. After waiting a few minutes he was on his way to his room, walking down the long hallways inside the building. The people in the office were nice, maybe that's just how adults were, and kids were different. There weren't many people in the hallways yet so he didn't really have to deal with anyone.

Once he got to his room, he noticed there was not that many people inside. There was just the professor and five students. The professor had short black hair, and he wore a white suit. Plain colors, that pleased him. At least it wouldn't be annoying to look at the teacher, that would be the worst. All of the students didn't really pay much attention to him, just kept on talking. They were basically the same as the kids outside when it came to appearance.

Everyone sat on the right side of the room, so he decided he would sit on the left at the front of the room. He wanted to be as up close as possible so he could see better. He didn't really have much with him, just the pencil, folder, and notebook that the office gave him. Lucky for him, they gave him a green folder and notebook and a plain yellow pencil.

A few people noticed him sitting there alone, but they didn't really say anything about him or do anything about it. They probably just figured he was shy. The professor said that class was going to begin, so they would all need to get quiet.

Stein opened up his notebook, just incase he would need it. But he didn't.

"Okay class, since this is our first day we won't really be doing anything. I am just going to go over the guidelines and rules that the academy has. Then, we will go over my rules. Okay?" He said this in a stern tone, he seemed to take this stuff pretty seriously. No one really responded, but a few people nodded their heads.

"First of all, you never..." Stein didn't really want to hear about guidelines, he figured they would be useless. So he just began thinking.

"_Is this what it's going to be like all year? Is everyone like the kids I saw outside?"_ He kept pondering things in his mind, not really having a real objective. Before he knew it, the class was almost over. He figured he would listen to the ending of the class, he could pay attention for a little bit.

"Tomorrow we will really get started, we will begin talking about soul wavelengths. You will need to find a partner to work with. Meisters will need to find a weapon, and weapons will need to find a meister that can wield them. For the meisters, you might have a preference of what kind of weapon you might want, but this won't matter. What will matter is if your wavelengths are compatible or not. And like I said, we will get into that tomorrow," When the professor finished saying this, he thought "_Anything will be better than this. We need to do something, not sit and listen to someone recite rules."_

"Class is dismissed, I am assuming I will see you all tomorrow. Have a nice day," As he said those last words in his usual bland, "I would rather not be here right now" tone, Stein began to gather his things together. He supposed he could have done this earlier, but the thought hadn't occurred to him then. After putting his notebook into his gray shoulder bag, he watched the kids leave the classroom.

They all were in the same groups as they had been previously before class started when they left. They seemed to be enjoying each others company, but Stein couldn't really understand why. He didn't get the whole concept of connecting to people. The professor was still in the room, but pretty much ignored him. He did, however, glance up at the silver-haired boy for a quick second before looking back down at his dirt bike magazine. Dirt bikes, really?

Stein then got up and quietly walked out of the room, his feet barely making a single sound. The fact that he didn't make any noise surprised the professor. But he didn't think anything of it though, as Stein left through the door he quickly continued his previous activity.

He then went through the majority of the day, basically being the same as his first class. One thing that he did notice is that there was only one kid that he had every single class with. It was a red-headed boy dressed in black. He seemed to be pretty quiet, but he did talk a little. When he did talk, it was mainly to guys and a little to girls. He seemed to like them for some odd reason. He didn't seem like he was a bad person, he was okay.

When it came to be time for the student's lunch break, Stein walked into the cafeteria. As he did this, a sensation rushed over him. Was it fear? He wasn't entirely sure, but it wasn't pleastant at all. That much he did know. Everyone seemed to be in a bunch of groups, just like it had been all day. The people in the groups seemed to be the same, but different from the people in the other groups.

He quickly found the area that had the least people and sat down. He didn't get any food, as he wasn't much of an eater. Instead, he pulled out a book on molecular and ionic bonds. At that moment he was very thankful that he had brought something.

People noticed him, and started talking about him again. But this time they were a little more discreet about it, so he never noticed. He probably wouldn't have anyway since he was practically lost in his book.

Just when he finished an article, the red-headed kid from earlier came over and sat in front of him. It was just good timing I guess. When Stein saw the red and black object enter the top of his field of view, he looked up from his book. He realized that it was the kid he had been with all day, and was confused as to why he would be there. The boy quickly broke him out of his thoughts as he began to speak.

"Hey, what are you doing sitting all alone here?" His voice seemed to be soft, but not too soft. It wasn't very loud either, but it was still easily audible.

"I don't really know anyone, so I figured I would read," Stein said this in a bland tone, not really interested in conversing with the kid in front of him.

"Oh, what are you reading?" This kid did want to talk, which kind of confused Stein. He didn't understand why he wanted to talk to him, they didn't even know each other. But he didn't want to be rude, so he would respond to the boy's questions.

"It's just a book on molecular and ionic bonds," He didn't say much, but he didn't really need to, he only needed to answer his questions. It didn't really matter though, the other kid didn't seem to mind coming up with stuff to say.

"Molecular and ionic bonds? Isn't that what people that are a little older read?" He seemed confused as to why he would be reading a book of such an advanced level.

"I don't really see much of a purpose in reading fictional stories, I prefer to learn. In particular, I like to learn about science."

"Oh, okay. Well, I need to talk to you about something," He seemed like he needed something from him, but Stein had no clue what it could be. He wanted to know.

"Okay, what is it?" His answers were always straight and to the point, I guess it would make it rather easy to talk to him. It wouldn't take much thinking to get what he was saying.

"I noticed that we have all the same classes together, and I know how you're a meister," Stein quickly interrupted.

"And?" He seemed to be a little impatient to hear what he had to say. He just wanted to get it over with.

"Well.. I am a weapon.. and I was wondering if you would like to be my partner?" This boy seemed to be a little nervous about asking him, and Stein could tell. It gave him a little pleasure seeing this boy be nervous, the look on his face. On purpose Stein waited a bit before answering, that way the boy would freak out even more. After what seemed to be minutes, he finally answered.

"Sure, I don't see why not. I don't have a partner yet, and you don't seem like you're all that bad," The boy seemed to be relieved, which made Stein feel a little upset.

"Thank you so much, I promise I will work hard. My name is Spirit Albarn, by the way."

"Hello Spirit, my name is Franken Stein," Spirit seemed to almost recognize his name a little, confusing him slightly.

"You're Franken Stein? Wait, isn't your father the best meister to have ever graduated from here?" There seemed to be a little bit of excitement in his voice from this.

"Yes, he is," Stein didn't really see why this was such a big deal to him.

"Oh wow, what does he do when he isn't on missions?" For some odd reason Spirit was really intrigued by this man, so he would continue to answer his random questions.

"He is a scientist. He examines different animals by doing something called dissection. He said I could try it once I get a little older, but I don't see why I would have to wait," Stein seemed to being pondering the reason in his mind, while Spirit was trying to think of what dissection even was.

"What's dissection?" Stein seemed both shocked and confused at the fact that he didn't know what this was. He will definitely know what it is later..

"It is when you take a specimen, of course organic, and you cut it open. Once you cut it open with what you call a scalpel, you can analyze the inside of the organism," This kid seemed to know a lot about it for having never done it before. So, Spirit asked how he knew about it.

"How do you know that much about it if you have never done it before?" Stein quickly answered this boy's question, yet again.

"I have watched my father do it many times. Right now I just watch, but I will get to try it eventually," He really seemed like he was anticipating this.

"Oh, okay. Sounds interesting," Spirit began looking at the girls sitting across the room, and they began waving to him. He really seemed to like them.. a lot.

"You seem to take an interest in those girls, what do you like about them so much?" Stein seemed to be really confused as to why he would even take the slightest interest in them, so he wanted to find out. Spirit gave him a "what's wrong with you?" kind of look before answering him.

"Are you kidding? Look at them! They look like angels.." During his last few words he seemed to drift off into a daydream. Stein didn't get how he could be attracted to someone's looks in anyway, so he just began to read as he muttered something like "sure". This instantly snapped Spirit back into that shocked look he had when Stein had asked him the question.

"What do you mean sure? Don't you think they're beautiful?" He seemed almost panicked as he asked those questions.

"Not really. I just don't see what is so great about them. They are just people," He said this in a very bland tone, confusing Spirit to no end. The only thoughts going through his head were "_How could he think that! Is he serious! What's wrong with him?"_. Although, not many people shared this opinion as strongly as Spirit did.

"Would you shut your mouth already? You look like an idiot," As Stein said this, he realized that his mouth was hanging wide open, his jaw had dropped a few feet. It did make him look rather stupid, he supposed. He quickly rearranged his face, still in shock at the boy's remark about girls.

After Stein had read for a few minutes and Spirit gawked at the girls a little longer, the bell telling them their lunch break had ended rang. Stein casually put his book into his bag, not in any kind of hurry as Spirit stood up and ran over to the girls. "_That kid sure is weird, but I can get used to him. At least he isn't rude or anything,"_ Stein thought to himself as he walked to his next class. The hallways seemed so long, like they would never end. When he eventually got into his next class, he walked in to see Spirit surrounded by a bunch of girls, all looking like they had an interest in him as well as he had one in them. Stein sat down in his seat and began to read again while he waited for class to start. One thing that was off though was that there wasn't a teacher in the room. Perhaps they were just running late. Almost as if to end Stein's current thought, a blonde woman of a medium-tall hight walked in.

"Sorry I took so long to get here, I had to make some more copies of the worksheet we will be doing today," A worksheet, a worksheet? "You will complete it within the class period and turn it in to me," After she said this everyone except for Stein began to moan, dreading having to do work. "Oh come one, you guys don't even know what you have to do yet, you bunch of babies!" She had a very sweet tone, and seemed to be very comfortable with talking to people. She wore a dark purple dress of medium length that accentuated her form perfectly, along with a pair of plain black flats. Of course, Spirit couldn't resist the temptation of staring at her.

"They should all be printed by now, so I am going to go get them real quick. By the time I get back I expect you all to be in your seats, got it?" After she said that, she walked out of the room. Right after she was no longer visible, Spirit ran over with his stuff and sat next to his partner. He began talking to Stein, his voice was going so fast he could hardly understand a single word he was saying.

"Isn't she amazing? Did you see her body!" He seemed to be overly excited about this. Stein had a feeling he was going to have trouble paying attention during this class, as he would be too busy paying attention to her looks.

"No, I did not notice her body. She is our teacher," He seemed almost annoyed that he would think of her like that, it was indecent of him.

"Ugh, why don't you like girls!" He seemed almost frantic, he just couldn't grasp the fact that not everyone thinks of them the same way.

"I don't know, they just don't seem all that important. Besides, you really shouldn't be thinking of your teacher like that anyway," Spirit seemed to give up for now, he was done trying to figure this kid out for now. When nothing was said Stein began reading again. As you can tell by now, he doesn't like to waste time.

"Hey, Stein." Spirit seemed to be bored, he wanted to talk. This wasn't exactly what Stein wanted to do, but he figured he wouldn't leave him alone until he answered him.

"What is it, Spirit?" He didn't figure he really needed anything, but he asked anyway.

"What do you do in your free time?"

"What do I do in my free time?" Spirit decided to explain what free time was.

"Yeah, you know, when you're at home... not going anywhere.. not busy.. free time."

"I know what free time is. And basically just read. I also go outside and study some of the insects and plants," Spirit seemed a little shocked at his answer. But I mean most people would. That's not what many 12-year-old boys do in their free time.

"That's it?"

"Yes, that's it. What do you do?" He didn't really care all that much, he just wanted to give him the same annoying question. Spirit didn't seem to mind though, as he quickly began to come up with an answer.

"Well, I play video games, ride my bike around my neighborhood, watch TV, and draw. You know, just simple stuff," As he said this, the professor came back into the room carrying a large stack of papers.

"Okay, now that I'm back you can all begin filling out this worksheet," She began explaining what it was about as she passed one out to each of the students. "This won't be graded for being correct or anything, you will just get participation points for completing it. What you will be doing is filling out a list of personal questions. Just simple things about yourself, this shouldn't be hard for anyone. I mean, who knows you better than yourself? Once you turn it in, I will read them and use them to get to know you all a little better. If you do not get it done within the period, you will complete it at home and turn it in to me the next day," She had just passed the paper out to the last person, Stein, as she said the last sentence. "This should just be a fun activity, good luck!" After she said this she left the class to work on the assignment.

Stein finished after only 10 minutes, as he is a fairly simple person. Spirit looked over to him and looked at his paper, noticing something. He was stuck on one last question, and the question was "What do you love the most in your life?". Honestly, he didn't know. He tried to think what love felt like, but he couldn't get it. He could give you a list of things he likes, but not of what he loves. He honestly couldn't even say he loved his parents. He never really thought of this kind of thing, he never had to. He decided to look over and see what Spirit had wrote down. His paper said "I love my mother the most." Stein figured it was either because she really was the thing he loved the most, she was going to see his paper, or because she had a "hot" body. Stein tried to think of what it felt like to love something for the rest of the class, but he just couldn't get anything.

"Do you need to take it home?" He heard the teacher ask him as she stood in front of where he was sitting. He hadn't even realized she was there.

"Yes, I have one question left," He said this in his regular bland tone, giving her a straight face. He was actually feeling very frustrated. He didn't understand why he wasn't able to get this, it's a simple question on a worksheet for school. The teacher had said that it shouldn't be hard for anyone, so why was he having such trouble? He figured he would put it off for now and just finish it at home, just like the teacher said he could.

"Are you having trouble deciding what to put down?" He heard his partner ask this question, the answer was no.

"No, I don't have anything to put down," He said this almost in a sad tone. He just didn't get it!

"What do you mean you don't have anything to put down?" Spirit seemed pretty confused. How could he not have anything to put down? Everyone loves at least something or someone. What about his parents?

"I don't love anything. I don't get it, I just don't. I have never really had to think about this before now. I tried to think of what love feels like, but I really don't know. I thought about it the whole period, and I still have nothing," Spirit could tell that this topic caused him some discomfort, so he figured he would just let it go.

"Oh, well hopefully you will be able to think of it later. Come on, let's go. It's time to go to our next period," Spirit said this in a way that was kind of trying to quickly trying to change the subject. Stein picked up on this, so he started to walk out of the room with Spirit.

Luckily this was the last class of the day, so they really wouldn't have to do much. As they walked in, they instantly noticed the professor. He was definitely.. loud. He had dark brown hair that was the length of Spirit's as an adult, dark brown hair, a decent hight, and medium weight. He was really talkative, he was making conversation with the students the whole time. He got distracted very easily. He also told stories constantly. Another thing he did was show the class a bunch of useless videos throughout the class. Most of the students really seemed to like him, but Stein and even Spirit felt like he wasted too much time. Spirit liked it when the professors would waste time a little bit, but not that much. At the very end of the class, he was even playing a card game with them.

When the bell rang, everyone started leaving the classroom. A couple people stayed behind to talk to the professor more, simply because they like him that much. He was basically a kid with a job, how could they not like him?

Stein and Spirit walked out of the academy and started down the stairs.

"Do you live close to the academy?" Spirit asked with what sounded to be genuine curiosity.

"Not really, I live at the edge of Death City."

"Wow, that's really far away. How long does it take you to walk here?"

"It doesn't take very long, actually. It only takes about 20 minutes. When I walked here today, I figured it would have taken a little bit longer than that."

"Yeah, it does seem like it should have taken longer," Spirit said this, quickly followed by a question from Stein.

"What does love feel like?" Stein said this so quickly that is kind of startled Spirit.

"What do you mean?" He seemed like he was kind of confused by the question. It isn't very often that you get asked what love feels like.

"I saw that you were able to answer the question from earlier, you put down your mother. So I am assuming then that you know what love feels like. I want to know, what does it feel like?" The way he sounded sounded like he actually wanted to know. It wasn't that fake interest he had used for most of the day.

"Uhh, it's kind of hard to explain. It's not really something you can explain with words," He said, almost as if he feels bad about not being able to help his new partner out. It really was something that was hard to explain. I am on Stein's side with this one. I have tried to think of what it feels like many times, but I don't know if I can. I have asked a few people what it feels like, but they are never of any help.

"Oh, okay. Do you live close to here?" Stein changed the subject really fast again, Spirit really doesn't like it when he does that. He could tell that he was trying to avoid the topic, so yet again he just left it alone.

" Actually, yeah I do. It takes me about 5 minutes to walk here, which is really nice."

"That's really close by, it won't take you long to get home," Stein was just trying to come up with something to say, anything.

"Yeah, it won't. I have to go this way, so I will see you tomorrow. Bye!" He said this as he slowly started to turn onto his road.

"Goodbye," Stein just wanted to get home and read, he wanted to actually learn something. Today hadn't been very productive so far, he was just glad that they were actually going to start doing something tomorrow!

For the rest of the way home, he didn't do much thinking. He did some observing. He began looking at different trees and plants that he could see, trying to identify them. This is what usually did when he was surrounded by nature.

As he went on, he began noticing something. Something was off.. but he wasn't quite sure what it was. Then it hit him, it was the sky. It wasn't it's usual clear blue color, it was more of a purple now. And instead of there being a sun, there was a moon. It was also different than usual. It was purple?

When he figured this out, it kind of startled him. Why was it like this? He didn't know. Before he could try to think of what it was, a large wall of water began to rush toward him. As it came at him, it began to knock down street signs and sweep away various trees and bushes. It was coming so rapidly that he didn't have anytime to react. By the time he could run or being screaming, the water was already beginning to engulf him.

He was completely submersed under the water, and he began to rise from the ground, floating in the warm, clear liquid that came from no where. He began looking around frantically, seeing that everything around him was under, even buildings. This didn't make any sense to him, how could this be happening? As he was about to try to swim to the surface, the water changed into a different liquid.

It was a very deep red. It was a lot thicker than the water, making it harder for Stein to swim up to the surface, if one even did exist. The color and thickness reminded him of something.. but he couldn't think of what it was. He kept swimming up, trying to figure what it was this was reminding him of. Then he realized it. It was blood.

None of this was possible. He was so confused, it was beginning to frustrate him greatly. He began swimming even faster and started paddling upward harder than before.

"_What's going on? What is this? I don't understand,"_ Just as he thought this, he looked up in hopes of being able to tell if he was close to the surface or not. He wasn't at all. He couldn't even see the off-colored sky, it was just red everywhere.

He had been under too long, he couldn't hold his breath anymore. As he took one big breath in, the blood began to fill his lungs, and he started to cough violently. The only problem with coughing was that the more he did it, the more blood got in his lungs, making it harder and harder for him to breath.

Then suddenly it ended, and he was just laying on the ground, loudly gasping for air. Standing above him was an old woman, she seemed to be quite worried about what was going on with him. As he stopped gasping for air, he was still breathing very heavily due to fear.

"What's wrong? Are you okay? Talk to me," Apparently this woman had been trying to talk to him for a while, but hadn't been able to get anything out of him except for screams, gasps for air, and a few giggles every now and then.

Stein didn't answer her. He just got up and started walking away from her, he had to get home. Why did this happen to him? Some strange things have been going on around him lately, but nothing like this. That truely terrified him, which not many things do. Maybe he could tell his dad about this, he thought he might have an idea of what's going on. He didn't like talking to his parents much, but he had to get this figured out. He didn't want anything like that to happen ever again.

When he got home, he quickly ran into his room and set his stuff down. Then he shut and locked his door like he always did. He really hated it when people would come into his room, which tended to happen if he didn't keep it locked. He grabbed one of his composition books that was labled "experiments" and sat down at his desk. He decided he would write down everything he saw, he figured it might be useful later. His writing sure was a lot nicer than most of the kids his age, especially for a guy. For some odd reason, a girl's hand writing generally tends to be neater than a guys, but this rule didn't really apply to him. It actually took him a while because he described it so well. If you were to read it, it would basically feel as if it had happened to you. That is one of the nice things about being able to observe things as well as he can.

He then pushed his feet against his desk, sending himself across the room to the bookshelve he had gotten the notebook from. He actually had his shelves organized really well, everything had a specific place for it. And every shelf was for something different. He catagorized them so well.. it was almost like the classifications for living things. You know, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. Man that kid really loved science.

After this he wheeled his way back over to his desk then sat up. He decided he was going to see if his dad was home or not, he was going to tell him about the thing he had experienced earlier. At this point since he knew absolutely nothing about it, he decided on calling it "The Thing".

Once he got up, he walked over to his door and unlocked it. When he opened it he walked out and walked through the long wallway that led to his living room. The living room was pretty bare, just a gray couch with a recliner that was the same color. There was also a black coffee table that had a plain, white candle in the center of it. There was also a black entertainment center with a 35" TV resting inside it. The walls where white with black vines painted on, the vines were actually quite nice looking. His floor was a clean, tan carpet.

After he walked through the living room, he walked through another hallway that led to his father's lab. This is where he did all of his work, the dissections, the research. The only time Stein was really in there was to watch his father work, not to talk. So this was little different for him. Things felt even more weird due the subject in mind. It was foreign to him, he had never had this kind of thing happen to him before. There was just something about it that really got to him.

Once Stein finally reached the end of the long hallway and got up to his dad's door, he knocked a couple times fairly lightly. He didn't want to just walk in, especially without warning him of his entrance first. He respected his father, and he was a pretty polite kid anyway.

He waited a second after knocking but never got a response, so he slowly opened the door. When he walked in he saw his father, he was doing another dissection. He was standing over the terrified specimen that was strapped onto the table holding a scalpel just above it's skin. He appeared to have been just beginning, as he was just about to make his first incision. He was wearing his typical lab coat, along with a surgical mask and a pair of latex gloves.

Stein stood by the door as he started cutting into the animal. When his blade began to slice open the creature, it began making terrible noises, ones that were filled with pain. In delight of the reactions he was getting, he began to laugh. But just shortly after, he stopped and set the scalpel down on the tray next to the table the animal layed on, it's organs now exposed while it lies there in sheer agony. He seemed to have sensed his son's soul wavelength.

"What do you need, Franken?" His father said this as he turned towards his son. He always called him by his first name, his mother did as well. Stein quickly began organizing his thoughts, trying to think of the best way to go about this.

"Uhh, I need to talk to you about something. Should I come back later when you're done?" Stein seemed a little nervous, which wasn't like him at all. He was just unsure, that's all.

"No, my specimen can wait," He grinned as he looked at the screaming animal, enjoying the fact that he was just going to leave it there while they talked. He always prefered his research subjects to be alive for two reasons. One, because of the way it caused them pain and terror. Two, because their bodies were just different in general compared to the dead ones. Everything was just more fresh.. and warmer. "What do you need to talk about?" His father said this as he took off and disposed of his gloves. After they were in his waste bin, he came over to his wooden desk and sat in his large, black chair that was behind it.

"Well, something.. _strange_ happened when I was walking home from the academy. And I am not really sure what it was or why it happened," At what his son had said, he raised his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah, what was it?" His voice seemed slightly irritated at being interrupted, but there was also slight curiosity behind it as well.

"Uhh, well when I was walking home, I was just observing the trees and plants, like I always do. But then I noticed something was.. off," His dad suddenly interrupted him.

"Explain what you mean by different."

"It was the sky, and instead of there being a sun there was a moon," Yet again, he interrupted Stein. He just couldn't say anything, now could he?

"Go on."

"The sky was purple and the moon was red. And before I could figure why this was, a big wave of water came rushing over me. It complete covered everything, even the buildings. Not long after that, the water turned into blood. I was trying to swim up to the surface, but after trying for a very long time, I realized there was no surface. I couldn't hold my breath any longer, so I took one large breath in and started to cough violently from the blood that was in my lungs. All of the sudden everything went back to normal. I was just laying on the ground gasping for air. This older woman was standing over me asking if I was okay, she looked really scared," As he finished saying this his father stood up from his chair.

"I'm sure it wasn't anything, you'll be fine. Just forget about it. Now please go do something, I would like to continue with what I was originally doing," He was at the table by the time he finished saying this. He had began to pick up the scalpel so he could resume with cutting open the bird, he hadn't even put any gloves on.

"Oh, okay." After Stein said this he walked out of his father's lab. His father then began to think to himself as he set the scalpel down once again.

_"This isn't good, it isn't nothing. Could he be infected by the madness? He must have gotten it from me.. but there's one thing. How could it be affecting him when he is this young? It shouldn't start affecting him until he is older, once he has grown up more. But that definitely is madness, something very similar to that happened to me before. Hopefully it doesn't take over him too soon, especially now that he is enrolled in the academy. Something terrible could happen,"_ As he finished saying this, he began to pick the scalpel up. He started slashing away at the animals skin, not even bothering to shut the door. This time there was no order or real purpose, just for fun. He sure was making a mess. Blood was everywhere. It was splattered all through his gray hair, it covered his rimless, round glasses. It was stained all over his coat.

Stein could hear his father's laughter from in his room, even with the door locked. He always could. He always tried to ignore it, but it was kind of hard for him to. It wasn't like his normal laugh, or anyone else's for that matter. It was.. disturbed. He knew there was something off about it, it had an almost eerie sound to it.

Stein just sat up on his bed with his arms around his legs, listening to his father as he thought about what he had said just a few minutes ago. "I'm sure it wasn't anything, you'll be fine. Just forget about it."

He knew it wasn't just nothing, it had to be something. There was something wrong. He would have to figure out what it was somehow. Maybe he could set up some experiments.

As he was sitting in his bed, he just tipped over onto his side, arms still around his legs. He just listened to his father's never-ending laughter echo down the hall and into his room as he lay there in confusion before he drifted off into sleep.

**Haha.. about the ending.. I didn't expect it to go like that, but I got the idea and really liked it so I just went with it. I personally thought it was pretty awesome. I can just picture that happening for some reason. And as you can tell, I developed the character of his dad quite a lot there towards the end. The whole madness stuff is in there because we all know he has had issues with that since he was a kid, so it would just make sense to add it in there a bit. The ending part resulted from the hallucination he had. That's mainly because once I start writing about madness stuff, which I tend to do a lot for some reason, it kind of stays. I will really try to make it not be the basis of the story, which I also tend to do. I will have to try hard, but I think I can do it. I am just going to make it a minor conflict that stay constantly throughout the story, and I will make sure it doesn't get to intense either. I had one idea of him doing his first dissection.. but it might be too much. I might add it in later as he gets a little bit older. And I have a feeling this story is going to be HUGE, as I already have well over 7,000 for just one day. We'll see how things go.**


	2. Let the Resonance Begin

**I am updating! I got this finished a few days after starting, it's only one day again and about the same length. I try to get it done as fast as possible. Because of that I usually get 3 hours of sleep, sometimes 2 or 4. I actually had to pinch myself to stay awake at school, luckily I have an extremely high tolerance for pain caused from pinching. I decided to test out my theory of not being able to react to it and was correct. I got this one person at school to pinch me as hard as they can, I almost did react but quickly adjusted myself to the feeling of how painful it was and had no problem. It was a few days ago but I still have a bruise from it.. that's how hard he can pinch. Anyway! Sorry if the dialogue doesn't fit them very well.. I try. I rambled again and I hope you like it!**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 2 Let the Resonance Begin

When Stein woke up, he was under his comforter laying in a position that was straight and flat, much unlike when he fell asleep. When did that happen? Whatever the answer might be, it didn't matter to Stein. This was because when he saw what time it was, he saw that class was starting in five minutes.

"Damn it!" Stein grumbled to himself as he ran out the door after grabbing his bag. Luckily he always slept in his clothes because there was no way he would have time to change. He had to get going. Looks like he was going to get a chance to start training now. He would have to run there as fast as his little legs would allow him, so this will be some good conditioning to help him build up his endurance.

As soon as he got out the door, he began sprinting down his driveway and onto the road. He thought this was probably the fastest he has had to run in a long time, really, he usually didn't have to run at all. He was in such a hurry, he didn't even notice an oncoming car and almost got ran over. Looks like he was faster than he thought he was.

He was actually making some good time, as he was just over half way there in five minutes, which is half the time he took when he walked. Maybe this is something he could keep in mind.

He was approaching the academy and class had started ten minutes ago. At least he really hadn't missed that much. When he saw how close he was, he picked up his speed and was at his "speed limit" as he was going up the stairs. He was really surprised, he had no clue he could run this fast. He was actually impressing himself a bit.

He ran through the entrance, and started down the hallway to his room. One of the staff members yelled at him to slow down, but he just ignored them as if they weren't even there. He could see the door to his room, he was almost there.

Just before he reached his door, he slowed down so he didn't look like he was running. But this was going to be pretty hard to hide considering how heavily he was panting. Running a few miles at full speed will really take your breath away.

When he got in, his professor, the one in the white suit, was just beginning to ask if anyone had picked out there partner yet. Now of course, they would have to test and see if their wavelengths were compatible or not, but these were the people they would be testing it with first.

It appeared he had just asked Spirit if he had found his partner because as soon as Stein entered the room, he pointed his finger at him and said "Him. He's going to be my partner." The professor looked him up and down looking irritated and said "Ahh, the late one. Hurry, take a seat next to Spirit." He then pointed towards Spirit's general direction. It had also appeared that they were almost done picking partners, as there was only a few people left.

Stein quickly got to his seat and sat next to Spirit, still catching his breath.

"Why were you late?" Spirit whispered to silver-haired boy, making sure to still look at the professor as he talked.

"I woke up later than I had expected to. Which is actually really weird considering I went to bed much earlier than usual. Hmm.. I wonder why this could have-" Stein was suddenly interrupted in the middle of rambling half to himself.

"I suggest you be quiet and listen, this is very important for resonating with your partner," The professor said, staring at Stein a for a little bit before continuing his lecutre any further. He just stayed quiet and listened, he didn't feel like getting in trouble for anything else right now.

"Now that we have gone over that, we are going to go out into the woods and pratice trying to resonate. I know this might be a little difficult at first, but if you remember everything I said, you should be fine. Just make sure you stay with the group, you cannot be running off," As he said that last sentence he glared at Stein, almost as if he was expecting him to do what he had just advised them against.

They all began to get up from there seats and go out into the hallway. It took them a little bit to get outside, because like mentioned before, the hallways were pretty long. The whole way there, the professor kept glancing back at Stein's direction for some odd reason. It's not like could even get into to trouble then, I mean they were in a hallway, what could he really do?

Once they finally got outside they all walked out to the woods, going into them just enough that they could still slightly see the academy. They picked a good spot, one without many trees. They had probably used that spot before for the same purpose.

"Okay, now that we're all here we can begin. I want the weapons to transform. This will be one of the major tests, seeing if the meister can even pick up the weapon. If you succeed at this, your chances of resonating are much greater." Everyone began telling their meister what type of weapon they were, so Spirit decided to ask Stein if he would like to know.

"I am guessing you want to know what type of weapon I am before we begin?" He said this with a tone that sounded like he was stating an obvious fact, but he was slightly shocked at Stein's response to what he had said.

"No, I want it to be a surprise. Come on, you ready?" Spirit kind of smiled after his shock faded away. He was almost certain he would want to know.

"Yep, I'm ready whenever you are." Spirit seemed to be getting pumped as he said this. When Stein replied, he still had the same emotionless tone in his voice, but it also sounded determined. Spirit could tell he wanted to get started.

"Good, let's go!" With that said, Spirit began to transform. Both Stein and the professor watched as a glow of yellow light washed over Spirit, just before his body began to morph. As the staff of the scythe began to be visble, still shrowded in yellow, Stein started to move his hands out towards it. The shape was then fully formed and glowng yellow when Stein grabbed onto him. As soon as his fingers gripped around the staff, the yellow lights broke, shattering almost like glass, showing it's real appearance.

He was actually quite large. His staff was steel, the blade of the weapon being dark black. It was very shiny too, the sunlight bouncing off the blade and into the professor's eyes slightly.

Stein held him easily, it was very natural feeling to him. It looked kind of weird and funny to see him holding a scythe that was basically as big as him, but it also looked kind of cool, making Stein appear to be a little tougher than he did without it.

He began to swing him around effortlessly, getting accustomed to the feeling of it all. There wavelengths were obviously somewhat compatible, overwise it wouldn't be this easy for him.

He wanted to strike at something, but obviously he wasn't going to be able to quite yet. His professor was actually kind of impressed at how fast he had gotten it figured out, even if he didn't want to admit it. Most people were either just not able to pick up the weapon or were getting injuries from the other person's soul wavelength, and there were even a couple weapons that were having trouble transforming. No one had completely gotten in. Except for Stein.

In a couple minutes, all at the same time everyone looked up to see Stein swinging Spirit around again, almost as if he was as light a feather. Their jaws instantly dropped, and they all began discussing how "amazing" it was and "cool" it looked. They were actually kind of jealous of him. So they all began trying again, but harder this time, trying to get the same results as Stein and Spirit had.

Spirit's reflection swept aross the blade, allowing his meister to see him as he spoke. "This is actually pretty cool, I didn't expect it to go this well," Stein just replied, sounding slightly amazed as well "Yeah, it is. I want to try resonating as soon as possible, the other teams are being too slow." He seemed to be impatient, but he would have to just wait anyway.

Because of the amount of time it was taking for the other teams to complete their goals, the professor went around and gave them all tips and made any necessary switches. After about 20 minutes of this, everyone was basically able to hold their weapons. One pair, however, was still having some trouble. It would burn her a little bit when she would try to hold onto the gun, but it was tolerable enough that she could still hold on.

"That took longer than expected, but I think we have it all figured out now. We shouldn't have too many issues with you being able to hold your weapon from this point. Now it's time for the tricky part. Resonating. This will probably take a couple days for you guys to get down. There will definitely be teams that are faster or slower than others, but this doesn't matter. Don't worry about what the other teams are doing, you need to stay focused. Just concentrate on what your doing," As he began to explain how to start resonating, he turned to look at Stein. This was probably the nicest look he had given him all day.

"To start off, I need you guys to focus. Try to feel your partners soul wavelengths, see if you can get them to connect. This will probably be easier for the meisters, as most things that have to deal with souls are. Now you may begin," As he said this, Stein turned to the side and began to focus on feeling his soul wavelength, then he would try to feel Spirit's.

Spirit was basically clueless, he basically had no idea what he was doing.

"Hey Stein, do you know how to do this? I have no clue what I'm supposed to be doing here." Stein quickly quieted him down.

"Be quiet, Spirit. I am beginning to feel mine. Once I do this, I should be able to feel your's. After I can feel your's I should be able to create a connection between our soul wavelengths. You just need to try to figure something out." He seemed to know what he was talking about, so Spirit just let him be and began trying to pick up something.

As Spirit was trying to focus, Stein's voice broke through his thoughts.

"I think I have it. I am going to try to get our wavelengths to resonate now, are you ready?" He sounded serious, which kind of pleased Spirit.

"Yep, let's do this!" Spirit sounded really determined even though he really wasn't doing anything to help.

Stein began to feel his wavelength extend out to Spirit, it was such a new, invigorating feeling to him. As his wavelength went out to Spirit, he could actually start to feel it a bit.

"Hey, I think I can feel it a bit!"

"Good," Stein said this with a smirk, obviously pleased that he was doing something right, both him and Spirit.

Their souls were beginning to resonate, they could both feel it pretty strongly, especially Stein. Before long they were starting to magnify the wavelengths, making them stronger than before. Their professor walked towards them to observe what they were doing.

"Good job. You guys really seem to be resonating well, especially for it being the first time." After he said this, he walked over to the other teams to help them out. They weren't quite as fortunate as they had been. Some people were beginning to feel their own soul wavelengths, one pair was beginning to be able to extend their wavelength outward, but the resonance would break the second they would touch. One group couldn't feel anything, so this is who he helped first.

Stein could feel the wavelengths passing back and forth, so he decided he would experiment with that a little. He started to see if he could get them to go faster, or if he could control the speed to make them go slower. Spirit would feel it a little bit every time Stein would shift it.

"What's going on? It feels like our wavelength is getting slower and faster over and over again," Stein quickly replied, trying to eliminate any confusion he might have.

"That's because it is. I am controlling how fast or slow it goes," He said this as if it were just totally normal, like he had done this many times before. But that's what happens when you don't show much emotion. Spirit didn't seem to get that about him quite yet, so it confused him a bit.

He noticed that he was a little quiet, laid back, and different, but he just hadn't realized it was due to a lack of emotion. Which since Stein had been noticing the other kids react differently than he does to things, he thought he could experiment with it a little bit. That's all the kid does, it's like he is obsessed! But really, it's just because he is curious.

"Let's see our limits, how much we can handle," Stein said this suddenly, his curiosity at a new high for the day. Spirit seemed to be on board with this idea. "Yeah, we can do this." Spirit actually seemed to be determined as well, as it showed in his enthusiastic voice.

They began pushing their soul wavelengths to their limits, making the connection the strongest it's been yet. This was thrilling Stein, you could tell by the glint in his eyes. The professor walked over to supervise them more upclose in case something were to happen. Which lucky for them, nothing ever did go wrong.

"What do I do now, professor?" Stein was sort of getting impatient since they accomplished what they needed to very quickly, leaving them with basically nothing to do. The professor seemed to be contemplating what they should do, because he honestly hadn't planned that far. He really didn't expect any team to get done this fast.

"There really isn't much you can do here, so you can either continue practicing resonating or you can take a break and just talk or something. It's up to you," As he finished saying this he walked over to help a team, leaving them to decide what they would do.

"Let's pratice for a little more, I want to make sure I am used to all of this," Stein said this, basially making the decision for the two of them. Spirit didn't have any objections, as he just responded in agreement. "Okay, doesn't sound like a bad idea. It couldn't hurt to get a little more practice," As he said this, Stein began shifting the wavelengths again, obviously enjoying it.

It was all so new, different, unique. Stein absolutely loved discovering and learning new things, that is what he thrives off of. But in all of his time experimenting and experiencing things, he has never felt something quite like this. He was definitely going to need to experiment with this a little bit, see what exactly they will be able to do.

After some time they decided they had practiced enough, so Stein brought the resonance very low, then to nothing. Spirit transformed back into a human, still taking in everything that had happened. Stein was a little upset, however, because he could no longer feel them resonating.

"That was awesome, we will definitely have to do some extra practicing. It seems like we are going to do really well," Spirit said this trying to make conversation.

"Yes, we will definitely have to do that. There is still a lot that we have to learn, so it is going to take some time and effort. I think we will be able to do really well on missions based off of today." Stein really wanted to learn more, but he was just going to have to wait. The worst part about being a lot faster than everyone is that they will have to do a lot of waiting.

Speaking of the other teams, things were starting to go better. A couple more teams were able to resonate, not strongly but it was a start. Every team was able to feel their own wavelength and extend them out, almost resonating. It appeared they were just going to need to practice a bit more before they get it.

"I think we have done enough work for today. Overall I have to say it went very well, I did not expect things to be moving along this quickly. Some teams will need more work before learning anything else, but a couple teams are ready to move onto learning techniques and different battle strategies. And as for Stein and Spirit, I would like to talk to you after class, okay?" After he said this they both nodded at him, wondering what it is they were going to talk to him about.

"Let's go. We need to be heading back to the academy now. Follow me." With that being said all of the teams started walking back to the academy, ready for their lunch break. They had actually been out there a while, so they were pretty tired. The walk wasn't very long, so they reached the building pretty quickly, all of the teams going to the cafeteria while Stein and Spirit walked to the professor's room with him.

"Now, it's obvious that you guys resonate very well. You didn't appear to have any kind of problem, which is very good news. I believe you guys are going to be able to progress at a much faster rate than the rest of the class. It might actually be best for you guys to learn seperately from the rest of the class unless the lesson requires multiple teams, that way you can move at your own pace. I do not want to hold you back any, you have great potential. With some training you will become excellent fighters, there is no doubt about that. I think it would be good for you guys to have slightly different schedules and basically private training. I will look into this and see what I can do. You should have your new schedule by the end of the week if everything works out. Are you guys okay with all of this?" As he asked this the two boys began trying to come up with an answer.

They were too shocked to really say much. Like he had said, this was very good news. This is exactly what Stein needed, his own pace. He could go as fast as possible, which he intended on doing. They had eventually gotten their thoughts together, and said something. Actually, Stein was the one who said something while Spirit still sat there, looking as if he had just seen pigs fly.

"Yes, that should work out very well. I want to be able to develop my abilities as much as possible, and this should be good for doing so," Stein said this in his usual bland tone, looking at Spirit towards the end, who appeard to be more calm and composed looking now.

"Good. I am assuming you feel the same way, Spirit." After he said this, Spirit said "Yes, I do." to confirm his assumption.

"I am glad to hear that. I will let you guys know when your new schedule is made. That is all," As he said this the two boys told him to have a good day and walked to the cafeteria to talk for the rest of their break.

"I am very glad we will be getting special lessons, it will really allow us to learn as much as possible. This is what we need, we should be able to develop the techniques fairly easily," Stein said this as they sat down. Yet again they were as far away from people as possible. This was mainly due to Stein though, not Spirit.

"Yeah! This is going to be so awesome, I can't wait to go on some missions. That's going to be the coolest part, the part with the most action. Like he had mentioned before, we will also need strategy. This should also help us with that a lot." They both seemed pretty excited, I mean who wouldn't be?

The entire time Spirit was talking, Stein was trying, and succeeding, to feel his soul. He still heard what he said, but he just wasn't a concentrated on it.

"Yes, it should. We will need to meet up outside of school to practice, I want to get as good as possible. Of course I think we should wait a little bit until we have some actual techniques to practice. We seem to have resonating down well enough," As Stein finished saying this Spirit nodded in agreement along with adding in his opinion again.

"Yeah, we'll have to. Where do you want to meet? I am cool with going anywhere."

"I don't really know. We can decide on that later when the time comes. And we might actually have to practice resonating a little bit more, we will want to do this as soon as possible. We need to get you to be able to feel the wavelengths a little better. I think once we improve that area, we should be able to resonate at least somewhat stronger." Spirit remembered how he was having a little trouble feeling the wavelengths, only picking them up slightly.

"That is definitely something that needs to improve. I rarely pick up anything, and when I do it's really weak. We will need to figure out some way to fix this. Maybe you could do some experiments or something."

At this point, Stein's experiments were not bad. They didn't involve any dissections, yet of course. Spirit offering him to set up some stuff to help them resonate might have contributed to Stein's later work on him. This might have led him to think he would be sort of okay with it. If he would remember saying that to him, he would probably regret it a lot. As over time, Stein's little experiments won't be as innocent as they used to be.

Spirit's suggestion of doing experiments to help them resonate actually managed to excite him. That was the thing he liked to do the most. He did a pretty good job at hiding it, though. He simply said something back in his usual tone.

"Yes! I will definitely do that. I will be able to do more as we learn more, so there should be quite a lot for me to do." His excitement showed a little. But to Spirit this just appeared as a normal emotion for once.

Throughout their entire conversation Stein had been focusing on his soul, he had also been coming up with some experiments as well. Towards the end of the conversation, he noticed something weird. It was almost as if he could feel everyone else's souls. Not connect to, but feel. He also saw them a little bit too. He figured he would learn about it later.

"Good. I am glad my meister is into it this much, you're extra research will definitely pay off later."

"Yes, it will. Hopefully by a lot," As he said this, the bell to go to class had rung. So they started to get up and go down the hall. The classrooms always seemed like they took forever to get to. They finally reached their classroom. This was the nice teacher with the "hot" body as Spirit would say.

They walked in to see her going around the room collecting the paper they had been doing yesterday. She was so nice, everyone really seemed to like her. And no, not because of her body. Spirit is actually the only one that noticed it at all except for a few boys that shared the same common interest in girls as he did.

When Stein got down to his seat and she was getting closer to them, he remembered something. He had forgotten to finish the last question on the worksheet. It didn't really concern him too much, but he did want the points still. So in his neat handwriting he quickly wrote "_I do not feel love, thus meaning there is nothing that I love the most."_ His grammar also seemed to be better than most of the people that were his age. He finished writing it just as she came up to where he was sitting, taking the paper from him and adding it onto a large stack of ones she had previously collected.

She then gave them yet another worksheet, but this time it was on the basic knowledge of soul wavelengths. It was basically just one of those baseline tests teachers use to see how much the students all ready know. Almost everyone was having major issues filling it out, they didn't even know some of the wavelengths even existed until seeing them on that paper.

As Stein was working on his paper, he heard his professor speaking to him.

"Franken, can I speak with you after class?"

Stein thought, "_Again? How many teachers am I going to talk to in one day? And why did she call me Franken? No one ever calls me by my first name."_ He then realized he still had yet to answer her.

"Yes," He said this in his usual tone, pondering what she could possibly want to talk to him about. He knew it couldn't be his work, he had actually wrote decent sized sentences. He just continued working on the new assignment until the end of the class period, only having about 1/3 of it done. She still collected it though, just as she did with everyone else's partially completed paper.

After she finished collecting the worksheets there was still a few minutes until class ended, so everyone began talking to each other. Spirit, of course, was the first one to speak.

"Hey, what do you think she wants to talk to you about?" Spirit asked this, seeming very curious and slighty concerned like most kids would. Even if you haven't done one thing wrong within the past 5 years, for some reason you get nervous when a teacher or adult wants to talk to you all of the sudden. It makes you start to think of everything that has happened lately, and makes you try to think of what they could possbily be accusing you of.

"Honestly, I have no clue. I don't know what it could be, it's not like I've done anything that could get me in trouble. All I know is I can't wait to get it over with." Stein sounded a little irritated at the fact that he just couldn't think of any logical reason that would lead to this. As they both started to try to think of something the bell rang and everyone started to get up and leave the classroom.

"Do you want me to wait outside the door for you?"

"You can if you want to." Stein didn't really care either way, so he was going to let Spirit decide.

"Okay, I will be waiting by the lockers for you. Good luck with your talk, I wanna know what it was about when you come out."

"I will make sure I tell you," As he said this Spirit began to walk out the door, shutting it behind him as he left. Stein walked down from his seat and sat in a plastic yellow chair she had set in front of her desk for him.

As he approached her desk she made a gesture pointing to the chair as she said "Have a seat, Franken." Stein thought to himself "_She did it again.."_

"I have a question for you, it's about the homework assignment you handed into me earlier today." So this was about his work, but what was wrong with it? Stein thought back, remembering how at the last minute he had written down '_I do not feel love, thus meaning there is nothing that I love the most.'_

"Yes, what about it?" Stein said, the only tone in his voice being confusion.

"Well, for the one question you wrote down '_I do not feel love, thus meaning there is nothing that I love the most.'_" Stein interrupted her quickly.

"Yes." He could tell his teacher was searching for the right words to say, and appeared to be struggling a little bit.

"It's just, you said that you don't feel love. I don't understand, how can you not feel love? You're a kid, all kids feel it." Stein was just as confused as she was.

"I don't."

"Well, have you ever felt all warm inside? Has something ever made you so happy that you wished you would never lose it, and made you want to cling onto it forever? Nothing like that?"

"No, not really. I don't get any of those, I already told you I don't feel love. I honestly don't understand a thing about it." She seemed almost petrified just thinking about this, it was abnormal for a kid.

"Hmm, I don't get this. Do your parents show you compassion? Do they show this kind of thing to or around you?"

"No." Something else was confusing her, it was how little emotion he showed. He seemed to have little knowledge on that kind of thing.. it was odd.

"They don't?" As she said this, Stein thought to himself "_Why is she asking all of these questions? I honestly don't see a point in this.."_

"No, they really don't. It probably helps that I don't see them very often. My dad is a scientist, and is usually in his office studying something, so I don't see him often. My mom is a nurse and works really long hours, so she isn't home often. Even when I am around them, they don't pay much attention to me. My mom does, she shows love. But it kind of annoys me, I prefer my dad."

This whole thing was really shocking, she couldn't comprehend any of it. A person that is so full of emotion and kindness like her isn't really able to see that point of view, no love.

"Oh, okay..." She seemed kind of upset about this. She hated that he didn't get to experience it, she actually felt bad.

"Is that all you needed?" Stein quickly tried to dismiss the topic as soon as he saw an opening to do so. Her eyes widened very slightly as he said this.

"Yes, that's all I needed from you," She said this trying to cover up any dispair in her voice, she really didn't want to sound upset. Stein got up from his chair and began to walk out, saying goodbye.

"Goodbye, Miss Parson."

"Goodbye, Franken. Have a nice day!" She said this with a bright smile on her face as she waved to him. He just continued to walk out, kind of surprised when he looked out the door. Spirit was still standing there, just like he had said he would be. He figured he would have just went to class, the bell was about to ring again, meaning they would be late. Stein at least had a reason to be late, Spirit really didn't.

As he walked to him when they both started walking down to their classroom, he began to be pounded with questions.

"What did she say? Did she need to you do something? What was it about? Is something wrong?" It was like he had just drank a bunch of energy drinks he was going so fast. I guess he just really wanted to know.

"Calm down, Spirit. I won't be able to answer any of your questions if you don't stop talking long enough for me to."

"Yeah, I guess that is true.." He calmed down after that.

"It wasn't even that big a deal anyway. She just asked me about my answer to one of my homework questions, the one about what you love the most. She seemed very confused about how I don't feel love. It really seemed to make her upset, but I really don't get why."

"Yeah really, how _do_ you not feel love?"

"Like I said to her, I don't really get it from my parents, so I have never really had the chance. I really don't understand the concept of compassion."

"They don't show you love? What kind of parent are they?"

"You and Miss. Parson must be like each other, you both had the exact same questions. And I really don't think it's them being bad parents, they might not know what it feels like themselves. Another thing that I said to Miss. Parson is that my dad is always in his office studying something and my mom is a nurse so she is never home. So there aren't many opportunities for that kind of thing to begin with."

"It still seems kind of odd. You would figure they would at least make _some_ time to be with you, that's what they are supposed to do."

"My mom does show me love when she is around, but I am around my dad a lot more often and he does not show it at all. So I am more used to his side of things, and she usually annoys me when she tried to be compassionate."

"We may resonate well, but I still don't get you."

As Spirit said this they walked into their classroom, the one of the weird professor. He was walking over to his computer to show his students yet another pointless video, wearing his khaki pants rolled up to expose his knee high, brightly colored socks, his long brown hair trying to get in the way of his eyes to keep them from seeing. That man really needed a hair cut, but he just wouldn't be the same with it short.

He turned to see the two late kids walk in together, then questioned them, "Why are you guys late?" Even if the guy was a goofball, he could still be serious when he needed to. Spirit quickly came up with an answer to cover the both of them "We had to talk to Miss. Parson about an assignment, Mr. Reignhardt."

"Okay, just don't let this become a regular thing."

He then began to play his video of unbelievebly high pitched trumpets trying out play each other, completely ruining the concert. It was actually pretty funny, that's how trumpet players generally are. Not making fun of them, I am just saying. He let them off easy because he really liked it when people addressed him by his name for some odd reason.

They got through the rest of the class, of course being annoyed by it. When you have a loud teacher that does not control the volume of his students combined with unusually loud students, it's hard to come out of that room without a headache.

As they walked out just like they had yesterday, Spirit began to talk again.

"I wonder what we are going to do tomorrow. I am especially excited for Mr. Treway's class, it is so cool." Spirit was really excited about training, Stein was too.

"I know, I really hope we get to practice some new stuff. There is still a lot to be learned."

"Yeah, there is. We still need to get our new schedule, which we should have in a couple of days. This will be great, we should be able to get a lot more practice in that way."

"It will definitely help a lot. I really don't want to be held up by a bunch of kids that are too stupid to figure it out, we need to go at our own pace. That is going to be the best way for us to learn."

"That is definitely true, it sure is a good thing that he offered that to us. We seem to pick up stuff pretty fast, especially compared to everyone else."

"Yes, we do. What I am wondering is how long it's going to be before we are ready for a mission, I want to fight."

"Yeah, I do too. It seems like it would be really fun. I have to go now. Cya tomorrow!"

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," He said this as Spirit turned onto his road and he kept on going. He and Spirit seemed like they were going to be a good team, and they seemed like they would also be good friends over time.

Before Stein knew it, he was already home. He started walking up his driveway, then onto his porch. He decided that before he went in he would sit outside and read a little bit. He wasn't outside very often, but he decided to make an exception, he was feeling a little crowded.

Everytime he would get this weird feeling like he was crowded for no reason, he would go outside. That was the main reason for the small percentage of times he would go outside. He would usually observe nature or do small experiments, simple stuff. It would usually help him clear his mind. He would sometimes just go sit under a tree and read, when it was raining he would sit on his porch.

His porch was made of smooth concrete, with a gray porch swing on it, two plants hanging from the ceiling that was above it. There was a black wicker table with a potted jade plant in it, along with a plain white coaster sitting on it. It was all so plain, it was peaceful.

Today wasn't raining, but he didn't feel like going to the tree, he was content where he was. He started reading the book he was reading the previous day, he was actually getting kind of close to finishing it. When he was reading, he started to hear people come down the road, so he looked up to see who it was.

When he looked up he saw two kids from his class racing down the road on their bikes, obviously not wearing helmets. None of them seemed to notice the silver-haired boy, so he just watched them go by, wondering what it is that makes people like each other so much.

What is so great about them? What gives one the craving to be around others? What about it all interests them so much? People are too much a like, no originality at all. It really irriated him. If they are all going to act and try to look the same, they might as well be the same person. The world is made for things to be unique, not boring. Changing, not static. That's why he liked science so much, things are constantly changing and being discovered. You need to be creative and smart to learn and explore new things.

After he had read for a while, he decided to go back inside again. He planned on working on some of his experiments, he didn't work on them at all yesterday, and he was kind of mad about that. He got inside and began working, doing what he enjoyed. It was almost like love, but he didn't realize that.

As he continued working for hours straight, he heard a knocking on his door. It was firm but not too loud. It was his dad. He got up from his desk, leaving his notebook behind, and walked over to his now locked door to unlock it. As soon as he opened it, his dad was standing directly in front of it, and he said something.

"You know, I wish you wouldn't have that thing locked all of the time."

"If I didn't, you guys would come in without my permission. Especially mom when she is home."

"That's what you say to me every time I protest against it."

"That's because it's true."

Both of them replied back and forth to each other so fast, it was like they had rehearsed what they had just said over and over again. After Stein said that, there was a brief silence before anything was said.

"Anyway, I have a question for you."

"What is your question?"

"Did you pick a partner?"

"Yes, actually I did," He said this almost in an arrogant way. His dad was actually interested in something about him for once. That was kind of surprising, it didn't happen very often.

"What's it's name? What kind of weapon is it?" His dad just refered to him as 'it', not sure of what gender he would have gotten. He pretty much assumed it would have been a boy, but who knows.

"His name is Spirit and he is a scythe," Stein said this seeming bored of the conversation. All he really wanted to do was continue his experiments or read or something.

"A scythe, huh? Did you guys resonate with each other well?"

"Yeah, we really did. We finished a lot quicker than everyone else, they were having a lot more trouble than we did. Our teacher actually seemed impressed, he even offered to have our schedule changed so we could get some private training and move at our own pace."

"That is very good, I can see that things are going well. Excellent," He said that, walking away after he finished. That was the little amount of care that man showed toward his son. The main reason why he even cared at all is because it had to deal with the academy.

When Stein was sitting in his room ealier that night, he began to feel something. Like the wavelengths he felt ealier during the day, just a little bit weaker. There was three he could pick up, his own, his father's, and his mother's. At least now he could tell if she was home or not without leaving his room.

His soul perception abilities never even showed up until he resonated with Spirit. Maybe that activated his ability, he would definitely have to research that later, he was very curious about it.

He went through the rest of the night in his room reading, only leaving to bring his dinner into his room and to bring the basically empty plate and silverware out. He just kept reading, and it was starting to get pretty late.

It was about 2:45 when he was experimenting again. He couldn't get the formula right, it just wasn't working. He had no clue why, he went through it multiple times, remade it over and over again, nothing went wrong any of the times during the process of making it. It just didn't make sense, why wouldn't it work?!

He got really mad and went to tip his chair over, but instead of just pushing it, something else happened too.

As he grabbed onto it, this green light began to glow around his hand. It looked like electricity, almost like a long lightning bolt wrapping around his hand. He didn't try to make it happen, it just did. He went to push the chair, the electricty formed, and the chair smashed into the wall, denting it in while making a really loud banging noise.

The part of the chair where the seat rested, connecting it to the part with wheels, was a metal pipe, it was now bent. It didn't do very much damage since it was just his first time using soul force, he didn't practice it enough for it to have any real strength to it.

He looked away from the chair and down to his hand. He held it out in front of his face, examining it as if it were an alien.

"What the hell was that?"

**Haha, I seriously think the way Mr. Tredway talks is like Stein, just saying. He honestly sounds more like Stein than my character of Stein himself.. Dang it! And also, Mr. Reignhardt is not completely original. I took my band teacher and gave him a different name, I just thought he would be a really funny character to have. And the whole high pitched trumpet video thing, my teacher actually did the EXACT same thing, and he looks the same. Like I said, it's the same person. I am sorry if the end seemed a little rushed and like there wasn't enough detail! Haha, the other day write before working on this one I was studying the human digestive system and I wanted feel where my liver was. I got this HUGE sudden urge to see what it looked like, and when I realized that I can't and probably never will get to, I almost cried. I had to try really hard not to, my eyes were watering. Also I was watching The Walking Dead today and they started to chop this guys limbs off and take out his guts.. Well I started to laugh, but then realized that if I kept doing that my mom would question me. She would then come and look at what I was laughing at, see it, and be weirded out. So I started to stop myself, and my eyes started to water again but this time because of how much I wanted to laugh. It happened multiple times, that's why I hate watching it around them! I think Stein is starting to rub off on me. XD Sorry for rambling... I will be hopefully updating very soon. I have a bunch of ideas for later on in the story, so things should go pretty quick!**


	3. So This Is Soul Force

**So this one is a tad shorter than the others, big deal. I am just eager to write the next one! I plan on adding Marie and Kami.. so yay! Things should start to pick up a little bit at this point, as I have a lot of ideas for this area. I will see what I can do to make this as good as possible. I am planning on making this next chapter take place over more than just one day. I am starting to get anxious about writing the chapters of them being like 15 and 16, that is going to be FUN as heck. Anyway, please review! I need as much feedback as possible so I know I am going about this right or not.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 3 So This Is Soul Force

At three in the morning, he stood there transfixed, still staring at his hand. What had just happened? He was confused to no end.

"Why did electricty just come out of my hand?" Just as he finished saying this, he heard someone knocking on his door. Someone was knocking at 3:00 A.M... He must have woke his mom or dad up. I guess that is pretty logical considering the volume of the noise the chair had made when making contact with the wall.

He walked over to his now locked door to unlock it, not surprised when he saw his mother standing outside. He thought he had sensed her soul, looks like he was correct. She looked very irriated, much like most people do when being suddenly woken up. She had to get up at five in the morning to get ready to go to the hospital for work, there was going to be an operation and she had to assist. She was going to need all the sleep she could get.

"What on Earth was that noise, Franken?" When his mother said that, he remembered how Miss. Parson calls him Franken. Maybe it was just a woman thing. His mother crossed her arms, impatiently waiting for him to respond.

"It was nothing, just forget about it. Go back to bed, you need to sleep," He said this, obviously trying to avoid having to talk to her, and she didn't seem to protest.

"You need to go to bed earlier, this isn't normal," She said this as she unfolded her arms, backing away from the doorway she had previously been resting on. She then walked back down the hallway, returning to her bedroom.

Stein's parents did share a bedroom, but his father was never in it. He was usually in his office during the night doing experiments and stuff along those lines, much like Stein did. I guess he got the whole "abnormal sleeping" thing from his father as well.

Stein locked the door once again, turning away from it, walking over to where his chair currently laid on the ground. He bent over to pick it up, looking slightly hesitant, almost as if he was afraid the electrical charge was still in the chair. He did, however, continue to pick it up, being relieved at the fact of not getting shocked.

He sat it back in front of his desk, closing all of the books he currently had out for research. He often liked to read about a certain subject until he knew it inside-out. Then he would conduct experiments pertaining to the topic, recording all of it in one of his many notebooks. He would then gather all of the information he had gathered, both from research and experiments, and would write a paper on it. This way he would be reasurred he knew everything there is to know.

He put the books on their designated shelves, then following was the notebooks and lastly all of the equipment used for experiments. After doing this, he walked over and sat on his bed, legs hanging over down towards the ground with his hands resting beside his hips.

He began contemplating what it could have been, trying to think of both a scientific reason and one more involving soul wavelengths. Then a thought hit him. His father had once mentioned being able to do something very similar to this during one of his stories. Maybe that was it, he could have just done it accidentally out of rage. Yes, that made sense.

He decided that he would ask his father the next day. Considering he was the one he had first heard of it from, he should have an answer. He was actually feeling tired for once, that only happened on rare occasions. He did do a lot that day, so it isn't entirely strange.

He took his shirt off, exposing his pale chest, next changing his pants. The ones he changed into were a pair of white sweatpants that extended to just below his knees. The edges fit perfectly around his legs, removing any space between the fabric and skin.

He got into his bed, covering himself with his comforter up to his armpits, his arms sticking out and ontop of it. He didn't usually dress this way for going to bed, but he did for very warm nights, and this was one of them.

The bad thing about his room is there are no windows to allow wind to come in, only a single oscillating fan. Even that didn't provide much help in alleviating the heavy feeling in the air from the humidity.

Due to the intensity of the heat, he had a hard time falling alseep. He didn't fully fall asleep until 4:00, wow did that kid need to get more sleep. The weird thing is that he was never really tired, like mentioned before, only on rare occasions.

He went through the night sleeping peacefully, almost. Due to the small amount of madness he has had lately, he had a nightmare.

* * *

_He was walking through the woods, but the trees were... different. There weren't regular trees, but ones that were deep red. After looking at the colors of the tree, he noticed there was a path on the ground that was black. He didn't question it, just started walking down it. It was terrible. His thoughts were floating around, unable to remain focused. He felt very tense and irritated, but for no apparent reason. Although his feet felt like lead, he continued walking._

_Another thing that made it harder for him was the air. It was even thicker and more moist than the air he had fallen asleep in, making it difficult to breath. It made everything feel slow, heavy, and groggy. It definitely wasn't the most enjoyable feeling._

_As he kept going, his feet only got heavier and heavier. Before long he could barely walk at all. That was when he looked down to see his feet stuck to the ground. They were strapped down by these long black.. things that extended out of the path he had been walking on. _

_They were very tight around the entire cerface of his feet, extended up to his ankles and slightly his legs. They really had a hold of him, it would be too difficult to get out of._

_He began trying to free himself, trying to pull his feet up as hard as he could. He was panicking, bending down trying to rip off whatever it was that was holding him down, doing no help at all. He stood up, trying to lift his feet up again, and something happened._

_These line appeared on the trees, then opened up to be the shape of eyes. Then more black things identical to the ones keeping his feet down shot out of each one, quickly wrapping around Stein's thin body._

_They started to wrap around him tighter and tighter, making it harder and harder for him to breath. He started to wiggle around, trying to get out. No matter how much struggling, wiggling, or twisting he did, it was to no avail._

_He had no clue what to do in a situation like this, I mean how often does this happen? He started screaming at the top of his lungs in hopes of someone stumbling into the red forest, providing an escape for him. No one ever came, but he continued screaming._

_From out of nowhere, a large lion jumped out from one of the trees, roaring as loud as it could manage. Stein looked up, seeing the lion jumping overtop of him. It brought it's claws back, then foward to scratch him. It also opened it's mouth, hoping to bite down on him. Just as it stretched it's mouth wide open, claws beginning to break through Stein's skin, drops of blood running down his skin, he gasped in fear and turned his head to the side, only to find himself laying in his bed at home._

He quickly shot up from his position laying down, panting and sweating both from the high temperture and the fear he had from the nightmare. He began trying to catch his breath, praying for nothing like that to happen ever again.

In reality, the whole time he had been laying there jerking around, screaming only slightly, not enough to wake anyone up.

His pulse and breath soon became basically normal while he just laid in his bed, staring up at the ceiling. It was all so vivid, clear, making it seem like it wasn't just a nightmare. That's what made it so terrifying to him. Not many things actually scared him, but that definitely hit the mark.

He tried to go back to sleep, as it was only 4:20 and he really needed the sleep, but he couldn't. No matter what he did, he couldn't fall asleep. He was too terrifyed, he didn't want the nightmare to return, or for something else to happen instead. He laid their for another 3 hours, atempting to sleep.

He could hear his mother get up and get ready for work, he could hear his father moving around the house, doing things that were unknown to Stein. Before he knew it it was time to get ready to go to the academy.

Lucky for Stein, it had rained over night. Because of this he acutally had his door open to allow some cool air to come in. It actually helped a lot, this please him, but he still couldn't fall asleep.

He got up from bed, changing back into his regular attire. He walked through the hallway, down to his plain kitchen. He decided he could eat something for once. He had been doing a lot of things that were different for him, huh?

He just made eggs, which he had actually taught himself to make one day when he was 9. His mom had an irregularly busy schedule at the time, and his father had begun an experiment that was going very well, and it was consuming all of his time. Stein got sick of eating cereal for every meal, every day, so he decided he could learn to make some stuff.

After he finished, it was just about time that he would have to leave. He went back down the hall and went to his room, looking at the large indent in the wall he had made during the night. He sighed and walked in, grabbing his bag before turning around and heading right back out.

* * *

He was going to the academy a little earlier than he needed to, but he didn't mind. This way he would be able to walk at a fairly relaxed pace and also get to observe a little bit. Since it had just rained, the air was a little moist and foggy, but it was also cool so it felt really nice to be in. That was also a good reason to be outside as much as possible.

He was walking down the road when he heard a noise, much like the one he had heard on his porch. Before he could turn around to check what it was, three bicycles whipped past him, obviously in an attempt to show off. They all looked back at Stein, hoping to see a shocked or scared expression on his face, but instead saw a blank one like he always had.

The kids quickly turned back around and kept going, confused why it hadn't had worked. They were honestly disappointed that he didn't do anything, that's the whole reason _why_ they did that stuff. It worked with everyone else, always. So why not him?

He continued down the road, shortly after he could see the academy start to peak out of the fog, exposing it's symmetrical design. It wasn't long before he was walking up the stairs. The fear the nightmare had caused appeared to be gone now, he was actually more confident than usual.

As he walked in, he saw Spirit standing hear one of the lockers, of course talking to some girls. The minute he noticed Stein walk in, he excused himself from the girls and ran over to him.

"Hey! You're on time today," He said this as he glanced down at the watch on his left hand, "Actually, you're early too."

"Yeah. I couldn't really sleep so I was up really early, I decided I would come early."

"Good. It doesn't set a good impression when you're late to the second day of school. That's going to rub off on me too since I'm your partner!"

"Spirit, we both know you couldn't care less about what time you got here. You just never have a reason _to_ be late," Stein said this, earning a smirk from Spirit.

"Oh yeah, like your reason is that great anyway. It's your fault you woke up so late, you need more sleep. Your body just forced itself to sleep, that's how bad you need it," Stein was about to come up with a response, but Mr. Tredway interrupted.

He walked by at a fairly fast pace, holding a cup of coffee in one hand, signalling Stein and Spirit toward him with the other.

"Goodmorning, Stein, Spirit. I have your schedules, please follow me to my room so I can go over them with you," He said this, just barely fast enough for them to be able to hear it all. They just quickly exchanged looks to each other before they started to walk down the hall in anticipation of getting their schedule.

They reached the classroom and saw the professor sitting in his chair with the schedules sitting on his desk. Did he move fast or what? When they came in they took a seat in front of his desk, Spirit grabbed both of the schedules he was holding out, turning to his left to give one to Stein.

"Although you did get your schedules, you will not start following them until tomorrow. For now, just look over it and learn it. First you will come here and have class like you usually do, but once this period ends you will go with a private teacher to begin learning different techniques and stances, things like that. Another reason why you aren't starting today is because he isn't hear yet. His name is Mr. Collins. You will learn a lot from him, as he is a 3 star meister. After you finish your lessons with him you will go for lunch break and continue your schedule like you normally would. The main difference is the middle periods. Do you guys have any questions?"

Honestly, they really didn't have any at all. They couldn't think of a single thing to ask the man, so after a brief silence, Stein said "No." Following that was Spirit saying "Me either."

"Good. This shouldn't be very difficult to get used to, you will be fine. I think that having Mr. Collins here will be very beneficial to you guys." They nodded their head in response, wondering what he would be like. "Now, class is about to start so you may take your seats if you want. Or you could go outside for a few minutes before you will be required to be in here."

"Okay, thank you." Stein said this as he walked away from the man's desk, following him was Spirit. They got up to their seats that were in the upper left corner, yet again trying to stay away from people. Now that the students had made more friends, they were louder than before, and this aggravated Stein, and suprisingly Spirit a little bit as well. Soon class started, so they all got quiet minus the couple annoying students that would never stop whispering to each other that every class has.

"Okay, today I will be telling you the main reason as to why you are all here right now, then we will walk back out to the woods and try to resonate again for about 10 minutes." He said this sounding very serious, but also lightly at the same time.

"You are here for one main reason, to kill kishin eggs before they are able to develop fully into a new kishin. As we already have one kishin running around here and we don't need another one added onto that. You will train yourselves to fight against and defeat these kishin eggs, and you will collect a certain amout. Ninty-nine kishin souls and one witch soul. If you are able to complete this goal, you will then create a death scythe, which is Lord Death's personal weapon. You can have three different rankings; a one-star meister, a two-star meister, and the highest rank, a three-star meister. It will take you a long time to reach that, if you even do. It will take a lot of hard work and commitment, but you all have the potential to do it. You just have to train right. Now, since you have different weapons, each will have different techniques. That is why you will be split into general categories, the ones that have the same basic techniques. When you get to the more advanced ones, you can have the exact same type of weapon but not the same techniques. That part just depends on the meister. Do you have any questions?" Stein actually had one this time, so he raised his hand, waiting to get called on.

"Yes, what is your question?"

"I am just curious, how does one become a kishin?"

"You become a kishin from doing something very terrible. You must kill a human and consume their souls, that's how. If you begin trying to become one, chances are you won't reach that goal, or stay alive."

"I have another question. _Why_ do people want to become kishins?"

"For power, that's basically it. The people that are trying to become kishins are very fearful people, and they are trying to escape this fear. When you become a kishin, you become much stronger, you have more power. Also, you completely lose the feeling of fear, this is an extreme advantage alone. You also become slightly resistant to pain, overall making it easier to fight someone."

After he said this, he began explaining a few more things. Then they all walked out to the woods, yet again, and began practicing resonating with their partners. Of course Stein and Spirit did this with complete ease, earning approving looks from both Mr. Tredway and Stein. Spirit just seemed to think of it in a more "This is so cool!" kind of way.

The other teams seemed to have improved slightly from the day before. This was definitely good news, it would take less time for them to start learning techniques. There were a few that were having a problem and the resonance wasn't overly strong, but it was better than what they had done before.

They were out there for about ten minutes, the entire time Stein shifted the wavelengths back and forth, which he really seemed to enjoy doing for some reason. Spirit just attempted to see and feel their souls, that way he could contribute to their soul resonance. He had actually made some progress. He could actually feel his, see and slightly feel Stein's.

Stein could tell this, as their resonance felt a little stronger to him. Directly after he had noticed this change Spirit said that he could feel their souls, confirming Stein's thought.

When they were all finished, they walked back through the woods and into the academy. They didn't really do that much, but for the other students it actually appeared to have helped them out a bit. This pleased Mr. Tredway, he was happy that they were getting better. He could tell this class had great potential, even more so Stein and Spirit, making him actually want to teach them.

* * *

Once they got inside they went to their other classes and went through the day, nothing out of the ordinary really happening. It was a little boring actually, Stein had almost fallen asleep a few times during class. He still needed to catch up on his sleep from not getting much at all the previous night. He sure did hate nightmares.

He had been getting them more often lately, and he never got them at all before. He at least got them a couple days of the week. But they never scared him nearly as much as last night's, and definitely never affected his ability to fall back asleep that much. They seemed to get worse every time he had one. After a while, this should be real fun for him.

School had finally ended, so the two started to walk home. They exchanged a few words and went their seperate ways, just as they had every day before this. On his way home he remembered that he was going to ask his dad about what had happened ealier. It's really weird, nothing like that has happened before. He has studied biology enough to know that that shouldn't happen to someone.

After he asks his dad he just might have to figure out some stuff as to why this is happening. And he wasn't particularly thrilled about having to ask his dad about it. He didn't really like to talk to him, or his mother either. It helped that his parents were generally busy people, so he usually got to leave soon.

He reached his home, finding his mother on the couch and, of coure, his father in his office. Like he did everyday, he brought his bag into his room and set it down. He then went immediately back the hallway to his father's office, hoping to ask him about his current problem. It wasn't really that much of a problem, but since he didn't know what it was, it was a problem to him.

When he got there, he knocked just like he had the last time. Then stood there for a few seconds before hearing a firm voice tell him to come in.

"Come in." Stein did this, walking in to see his dad sitting at his desk doing something on his computer. Probably some sort of research for his current experiment. Usually he had multiple going at once, but this one was big enough that he wanted to just deal with this one for now.

"What do you need?" His father said this, sounding just as bored as he did all of the other times Stein had talked to him.

"Well, I was wondering about something that happened last night."

"What happened?" His dad had this habit of always interrupting him, basically after every sentence he would say.

"I was doing an experiment like I always do," His father rolled his eyes when he said this. He seemed to think of his experiments as unimportant. It's probably because he does a different type than he does, no dissections. "And it wasn't going right, the formula wasn't correct for some reason, I still can't figure it out. Anyway, I got mad about it and went to throw my chair. But when I hit the chair, instead of just hitting it this green electricty, I guess you could say, surrounded my hand. I ended up smashing the chair into the wall really hard.. it even dented it in a little bit." After he said this his father made a face that looked like he was thinking.

"Has this ever happened to you before? In any way?" He seemed like he might some idea of what it was, this seemed like a good sign.

"No, just that one time. Do you know what it was?"

"Yes, I do. I am not entirely sure, but it sounds like you shot your soul wavelength into the chair. That is just my guess, but that sounds like it's what happened. Things very similar have happened to me before, it is very logical to say it was that."

"What _exactly_ does it mean that I "shot my soul wavelength" into it?"

"You shot your wavelength into the chair, it's a technique called Soul Force. I learned how to do it when I was in the academy, not many people can do it, and only meisters can accomplish this. I probably passed it down to you. You will use this when battling against an opponent, it will enable you to fight without using a weapon. You will need to tell your teacher about this as soon as you can, you will need to develop this further. I will be able to help you with it occasionally when I am available. You need to get it to a point where you can do it when you want to, not just by accident."

"Okay, how do you develop it further?"

"By practicing. You will need to understand soul wavelengths more than you do now, this should help you control it better and thus allow you to preform the technique better."

"I am taking a class on different types of wavelengths, will this help?"

"Kind of, but not exactly. You will need to learn about the wavelengths themselves and more of what they can do, not the different types. This should help a little bit, however, just not all that much."

"Oh, okay. I will make sure I mention this to my teacher. I want to be able to understand this as much as possible."

"Good, I am glad to hear that you are willing to learn." After he said this, there was a long silence, both person doing absolutely nothing besides inhale and exhale. Then his father sighed before speaking.

"Is that all you needed?"

"Yes, that's all I needed."

"Okay, go study or something. I need to get back to work."

"Okay, see you later." After Stein said this his dad nodded his head, then turned it toward his computer. He could tell by the glare in his glasses that he had a document open, probably something he was working on, as he began to type and there were more and more words appearing on the glass.

Stein walked away from his father, shutting the door on the way out. He walked back the hall to see his mother still on the couch relaxing after doing to work. That's what he usually did every time there was a surgery. She would just come home and sit on the couch the whole night, minus cooking dinner.

* * *

Stein just read the whole night after he got into his room. He finished the book he had been reading on molecular and ionic bonds and started reading one on the digestive system. For some odd reason for the past couple days he has had more of an interest in the human body. All of the functions and processes that took place within it were starting to become even more fascinating than usual, how complex the organs were.. everything was just.. different. He loved it all.

He was just at the beginning of the book, so he wasn't far in the process of digestion yet, not far at all. He had just finished reading about mastication when his mother came to get him for dinner.

"I see you're reading like always." She this in her usual cheeful tone, laughing a little at the end, thinking of her son's usual activity. Even though she wasn't around often, it didn't mean she didn't show him effection or emotion. She was actually a pretty happy person, always smiling. And just because she was a nurse, it doesn't mean she would like to study biology in her free time. She is mainly a nurse because of how mcuh money she gets from it.

"Yes, I just started a new book actually. It's on the digestive system."

"I can see that from the cover of it. Is it interesting?" She could tell because after he got up to grab a book-marker and put it away, she saw the cover of it when he shut it before sliding it onto his bookshelf.

"Yeah, it is. But I haven't actually gotten to the organs or any body parts yet, so it will be a little bit before it gets to the good part." His mother did annoy him, but he still talked to her when she came to him. He walked over to his mother, suddenly realizing that he had forgot to lock his door. He thought "_Now how the heck did I do that? I always lock it, it's bascially a habit now."_

When he walked to the door way, his mother slid to the side so her son could leave as she said "I am glad to hear you like it. It costed us enough money, it better be good." They always bought him books, no matter what it was on, and since they made quite a good amount of money, basically no matter how much it costed too.

They both walked down the hallway and into the dining room together, seeing that his dad was already at the table eating. They were having spaghetti, something his mother actually made quite often. But he didn't mind she made it a lot, it was one of the foods he actually liked. It wasn't her cooking that made him not like what she made, it's just food in general.

They went through the dinner, his father and mother talking like usual. His mother was telling his dad about the surgery, this is something he made her do every time she had to help out with one. He really liked to hear about it in detail. Stein was more interested in it than he usually was, basically drawn into every word she was saying. He barely even touched his food he was so into it.

Throughout dinner, he barely said anything, and seemed almost empty minded. This was because he started to think about the nightmare he had the night before. He still couldn't get over how real it seemed. Apparently his mother could tell it was bothering him, as she asked him about it.

"You seem distracted, Franken. Is something wrong?" This question startled him out of his thoughts, he wasn't expecting someone to talk to him.

"Everything is fine.. I was just thinking about the nightmare I had last night.. that's all." He seemed really shy when talking about this, he didn't really like to.

"Did you say that you had a nightmare?" His dad immediately interceded, seeming almost alarmed in some sort of way.

"Yes, why?" After Stein asked this, his dad seemed to start thinking. He thought about how people with madness experience nightmares often. He himself actually had a lot of experience with them. When the madness is affecting him more strongly, he will usually have them every night. When it's not as bad he doesn't have them nearly as often.

"How often have you been having them?" He asked this after thinking of some of the more terrifying ones he has had over time, ignoring Stein's question.

"Lately I have been having them a lot. At first it was once a month, then once a week, then multiple times a week. Now I usually have them 3 times a week. They keep getting worse.." As he said the last sentence, he looked down at his food, almost avoiding his dad.

"Hmm.." His father seemed like he was avoiding this as well for some reason. From the event that had happened a couple days ago and his recent knowledge of his son having nightmares this often, he was sure of what was going on. But for reasons even he wasn't entirely sure of, he didn't want to tell him that's what was happening.. It was strange.

After a long silence, they all just started eating again, finishing soon after. They all brought there plates, silverware, and cups into the kitchen and put them into the sink. Stein went back into his room, continuing his previous activity, just like his parents did.

* * *

He started to think about the technique his dad had told him about, he really wanted to know more about it. He decided that he would tell Spirit about it when he got to school, and his professor before class starts. It was nice that their special trainer was getting there, he could probably help him with this.

It had actually surprised him when his father had said that he was going to help him out a little bit with it, he really didn't expect him to say that. But he figured he might as well accept his help, he didn't get it often.

His father sat in his office, leaning back in his chair taking a minor break from his research. He had been working on it for a while, so he figured he could take a few minutes to think about something other than the structure of the brain.

"_How much has the madness started to affect him? He shouldn't be experiencing it this much, he isn't even that old. I guess I feel it pretty strongly... but still.. it just shouldn't be spreading this much. Not this fast. This better not continue, or we could have a problem."_

His father sat there thinking for about another few minutes before his attention returned to his research, just like it was before.

Stein decided he would practice seeing souls. He could see them easily, but just these basic blue orbs of light, no dimension, size difference or color. He started to focus on them more and more, trying to see if there was anything else to them.

He knew they had to be more than just little blue orbs, they would be basically useless otherwise. There would be no reason for him to be able to see this. I mean, if only meisters could see them, there had to be something to it.

As he started to focus a little more, he could almost see their souls expanding, becoming different in shape. He couldn't really tell much about them, as he was new at this. But what he could see was that his father's soul was extremely large, it was unbelievable. His mother's soul was large as well, but not nearly as much.

He figured that if he worked on it a little more, he would be able to see them extremely well, which he will actually end up proving when he gets older.

He decided to experiment, like he did most nights. He worked on his formula again, and to be honest, he almost hoped that it wouldn't work so he could get mad and use soul force again. But unfortunately for him he didn't, he actually got all of the chemicals to balance out correctly. He was pretty excited, he had made his first tranquilizer! He wasn't exactly sure what he would use it for, but he knew it would come in handy sometime. He was going to make it again tomorrow to make sure he had it correct and that he could make one basically whenever he wanted or needed to.

He thought that it might be a good idea for him to go to bed considering the fact that it was 2:30.. wow did he hate sleeping. He was always comfortable when he would, minus the nightmares of course, but he just hated to waste time like that. He could be studying something!

He got into bed, keeping his original clothes on, as it was considerablly cooler than the previous night, and he was thankful for this. It was one of those nights where it was warm, but not too warm. One that was fairly easy to fall asleep during.

The only thing he had to worry about was having another nightmare.. those things were freaky. Lucky for him he didn't have one, so he acually slept through the whole night. He hadn't slept that well in weeks actually.. it felt pretty nice.

**I don't have much to say, which is very different compared to the other times. I will just say I have been more lazy now, so I will try to get my butt moving. This is the good part coming soon! REVIEW PLEASE! And I am going to get started on the next chapter tonight, cya!**


	4. New Techniques, People, and Forces

**I spent four nights on this, and I must say it's pretty good. It is way too long though. Oh well, the longer the better. The main reason why it is so dang long is because there is a lot of development, ****characterization, and events that happen in it. Sorry if I moved thing along to fast or went little too far with what happened at the end of the chapter.. once my mind gets into creepy stuff, it stays that way. Please read all of this chapter, it's really long but it's good!**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 4

He didn't have a nightmare that night, so he was able to sleep through the entire night; it was much needed. There was about thirty minutes until class was going to start, he noticed this when he looked at his clock. He wasn't going to be late or anything, but he just couldn't mess around. He got out of bed to get ready, realizing how awake he was, which was indeed a very weird feeling for him in the morning. Although it may have been weird, he liked it. There was just something relieving about not being scared to death in the middle of the night, being awoken due to this, then not be able to fall asleep in fear of another nightmare.

He started on his way out the door and to the school, feeling the morning air hit his face as he walked out. When this happened, he realized he would probably be a morning person if he didn't stay up so late. That was the positive thing about going to school in the morning: the walk there, the feeling of the fresh air, getting some exercise, just a change from his regular routine of sitting in his room or in a desk all day.

The school was starting to be perceptible as he remembered that Mr. Collins was going to be there today. He, of course, will need to tell him about his dad's speculation on what the green electrity that shot out of his hand was. He believed this was it as well and fully trusted his dad's opinion, but he still needed to tell them for both a second opinion and also to see if they wanted to do anything about it. It is a technique after all, the academy is supposed to help them develop techniques to the best of their abilities.

He started up the stairs of the academy, noticing but ignoring the few glares he was getting. Since he started attending the academy, less people stared at him, but some still did. The ones that were the first to stop were the ones in his class. This was mainly because they were impressed. The others stopped because they heard stories about him and Spirit. Spirit never really got stared at since he looked more like normal kids did, so instead of getting people to stop staring, it ended up making the girls be more attracted to him. He certainly didn't mind that.

He walked in, looking for Spirit as he did so. Upon not finding him, he decided to just go to his class. He never really tried all that hard to find him. He was the closest thing that he could consider to being his friend, so of course he was going to like being around him more than other people. But since they weren't really best friends yet, he didn't care THAT much.

Mr. Tredway was sitting at his desk like always, but there happened to be someone with him. It was a man in his mid-thirties, and he looked like he was really strong. He had medium-lengthed brown hair, brown eyes, a short sleeved navy blue shirt, and black shorts. He just wore a pair of worn out tennis shoes, probably used for running quite often, perhaps in battles as well. From the data he collected when seeing this man and the way he was talking with his teacher, he assumed he was Mr. Collins.

He looked up to see Spirit sitting half asleep in his regular seat. Him and Stein basically had a seat that was just their's, they sat in it every day. Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing, sitting in little groups based on who they were friends with. They had claimed a spot more far off in the room; it was at a place that was a decent distance away from the other students, but also at a good space so they could see well. It appeared to be a decent arrangement actually.

Stein had found his way up to their corner, and just stood in front of Spirit, looking down at him like he was waiting for something. Nothing was said by either one, so Stein broke the silence.

"Why do you look so tired? You're never tired." And that was true, he was never tired. Spirit was actually a pretty hyper child. Somehow he didn't annoy Stein though, which neither of them understood how. I guess he just got all of that built up energy out when chasing after girls. He never really meant to gain anything from this activiy, he just loved the way they looked. He also love how "innocent" they seemed, he thought they were cute.

"I got a new puppy... he.. kept me up all night. He wouldn't stop barking.. and just kept running around the house all night.. he wouldn't leave me alone." Spirit managed to say this in between yawns and attempts to keep his eyes open. He really wasn't used to staying up, he actually went to bed at a pretty decent time, much unlike his partner.

"How late were you even up? It couldn't have been that bad. It's a dog."

"It's not a dog, it's a puppy. Trust me, there is a difference. They have so much energy... I just can't stand it. If it wasn't so cute, I would probably get rid of the thing."

"Just get a shock collar for it or something."

"Stein, you don't shock a puppy."

"They have to learn somehow." Spirit didn't like his response very much. Stein could tell by the way he rolled his eyes before putting his head down on the desk, having it supported by his arms that were currently crossed. Stein realized he was still standing, so he just ignored his partners displeasure and sat down.

"Okay class, I bet you are all wondering who this man is." Mr. Tredway said this, pointing to his right. "Most of you will not be taught by him, the only two people that will are Stein and Spirit. This is Mr. Collins. He comes to teach special lessons to students that either need extra help, or simply just need to learn at a faster pace." After he said this, he turned his head to Stein and Spirit, about to talk to them directly.

"Stein, Spirit," As he said the two boys' names, Stein shook Spirit to wake him up. As he did so, Spirits hands fell out from his head, causing it to smack off the wood.

"Huh?" Spirit said this as he was shocked awake, then began rubbing his head.

"Listen.." Stein almost whispered to Spirit, pointing towards Mr. Tredway. The professor just looked at them, creating that long silence teachers love after someone wasn't listening or paying attention, before continuing.

"You two will be taking lessons from him probably for the rest of the year. The only reason I see fit for these lessons to be discontinued is if Mr. Collins must leave or if one of the two of you are unable to learn properly. And for that one, there has to be a good reason for it." After he said this he looked away from them and more towards the rest of the class, his attention returning to everyone.

"He will just be observing our class. He needs something to do until he has a class to teach, and this happened to be what he chose to do. He will watch me teach, and also help anyone out if I am not available at the time." With that he started class. He started to talk about different things that are bad to do in battle, and could possibly lead to you being badly injured or killed. After they learn a couple techniques and learn what they should and should not do, they will all be allowed to choose a very easy assignment, basically as a practice run to see what they are really capable of.

* * *

Spirit had slept through the whole thing so he had no clue what the professor said. Luckily for him Stein actually took notes, he said that he was going to let him borrow them.

"Don't be such a pansy, it's just a few hours of sleep. I will let you look at my notes this time, but next time you're on your own."

"Hey! I need those few hours. How else do you think I manage to be this awesome? And don't worry, I will make sure it doesn't happen again."

"I don't think you can really manage to be anything. And is that so?"

"Oh shut up. And of course, trust me."

"We'll see." As Stein said this they were both at the front of the classroom. They stood there waiting as everyone else moved onto their next class. Stein was ready for the lessons to start, Spirit on the other hand was more focused on being able to stand up.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Collins as you already know." He looked at the gray-haired boy, his eyes went up and down, then said something to him. "I take it you are Franken Stein?"

"Just Stein, call me Stein." He really hated that name.

"Okay, I will make sure I do that." After he said that, he looked over to Spirit. "You must be Spirit then." He said this, clapping his hands in front of the boy that was now leaning against the chalkboard, half starting to snore. He actually clapped really loudly, so Spirit instantly woke up, smacking his head off the board.

"Dang it! Not again.." He began rubbing his head once again. He seriously hated this whole no sleep thing. Mr. Collins just smiled at him, seeming pleased that he had woke him up, half of the pleasure probably coming from him smacking his head.

"I suggest you start getting more sleep. You can't train if you can't even stay awake long enough to transform."

Spirit's hands dropped to his side as he started to grumble and groan, wanting to say something along the lines of "I would if I could! You seriously think I enjoy getting no sleep? What's wrong with you?". But since he is now his teacher, he stuck with the grumbling.

"Alright, now that we aren't sleeping, let's head outside." He said this as he started to walk towards the door. This man seemed to be fairly decent. He wasn't overly peppy, but he was definitely lively and had a good mood. He also seemed like he enjoyed teasing people, this shouldn't be too bad.

The entire way down the hallway, even though you are technically supposed to be quiet, he kept running his big mouth. He lectured Spirit about how getting no sleep can be bad for you, making Spirit want to bash his head against the wall, even though he knows how painful it can be from his earlier experiences. Stein just remained silent, enjoying how annoyed his partner was. He thought to himself "_This teacher isn't all that bad._"

After what seemed like a century for Spirit and nothing for Stein and Mr. Collins, they were outside in the middle of the woods. When they got there Spirit was smacking his head with his hands.

"That's gonna hurt, 'ya know?" This man seemed to like asking the most obvious, abnoxious questions. He could tell Spirit knew this, as he earned a glare from the weapon.

"Eh, at least I got you to stop smacking your head like an idiot." Stein almost started to laugh to himself. He was used to him being the only one to talk to him like that, and it was definitely never a teacher, that's for sure.

"Okay, I need you to transform, Spirit." As he said this, he seemed to be a little more serious. Turns out, he can be an actual adult as well. I guess he is one of those people that are slightly childish, but when it comes the right time, they can be as serious as they want to be. Spirit nodded, seeming like he had a slight disliking towards this man. But the instructor didn't react to it like he usually would, he just kept the exact expression he had seconds ago.

He transformed, landing in Stein's arms. This felt right, just like it always did. One of the reasons Stein liked practicing so much is how natural it felt, nothing felt that way. He stood there waiting for their next instruction, growing quite impatient. This was supposed to be fast paced, right? Yes, but not as fast as Stein likes everything to be.

"Try to resonate. I know you can already do this, but I need to see how strongly you can. You'll need to be fully awake for this, Spirit, got it?"

"Yes, of course."

At this, Stein started to link their souls together. Of course he did all of the work, Spirit still couldn't quite get it.

"Spirit, put forth some effort. This will help you resonate stronger." Mr. Collins said this, suspecting that he was starting to fall asleep. But in reality, it wasn't that. Spirit just didn't know what to do. "I try, but I can't. I can't even feel my soul completely, how would I feel his?"

"Concentrate. Just focus totally on that, and nothing else. Just try to feel your soul, then Stein's. Since he has already established a resonance, just feeling his should be enough." Once he finished saying this, Spirit closed his eyes and started to put all of his remaining energy into feeling their souls. He actually felt his completely, and started to feel Stein's. Their teacher could tell instantly, so could Stein. Stein could always tell when there was even a slight change in Spirit's soul. He had a very good grasp on all of this, which really pleased Spirit and their professors.

Mr. Collins used his soul perception the entire time, checking to make sure both of their souls and the resonance were stable. He could feel Stein's soul fairly strongly for his age, and Spirit's was wavering slightly, but he figured this was because of his energy level. He was already tired to begin with, but now he was starting to work pretty hard.

"Stein, your soul is fairly strong. You will be the main connection when resonating, this is how it usually works with meisters. You don't appear to have any problems with this, and Spirit, you are also doing a good job. I am glad to see that you are starting to feel his soul. I want you guys to start resonating stronger. Stein, I am assuming this is just coming to you naturally, so you are not required to put forth much effort. I need you to put in effort now, this should make the connection extremely strong. And Spirit, if you have enough strength left, I want you to focus even more. Get it up to your limits."

That is exactly what they did. Stein of course immediately started to strengthen the resonance, shortly following was Spirit. They started to get it up even more and more, it was actually kind of tiring. Spirit could tell he was pushing himself, but he just kept going even though he was exhausted. He figured that being overly tired once wouldn't hurt anything. Although he might have been correct, it was just by a little bit. He felt like he was going to pass out.

"Spirit, are you okay? You can relax a little if you need to, I will just try harder." Huh, Stein was actually being concerned about someone for once. Looks like he can care.

"Fine, but only because you offered." At this Spirit started to loosen up a little, he could tell his consciousness was starting to come back to him. Stein started to push himself harder. Since he hadn't done much training at all, he wasn't very used to this, and it was actually starting to tire him out a little. But he didn't mind; he knew that he would get stronger, so he just kept going. He kind of liked the way it felt, this didn't happen to him very often. I mean, how many people get tired reading? Not the sleep kind of tired, but physically; oh well, you know what I mean.

He kept the resonance going, obviously pleasing the teacher. Spirit had gotten his break; now he wanted to start again, and that's exactly what he did.

"Are you sure you can do this? You don't have to."

"Yeah, I am sure. I am fine now." Spirit insisted, so Stein wasn't going to argue with him. Another reason why he didn't keep protesting was that he could tell he really was ready, his soul seemed more stable than it had been before.

"Come on, just push a little harder. You guys can stop after that, there are some things that I want to talk to you guys about. I would also like some extra time for if either of you have any questions. Concentrate. Remember, try to get it as strong as you can. And so they went on.

They pushed, and concentrated, and focused, getting their resonance up the highest it's been yet. Both Stein and Spirit were pretty worn out, and the teacher seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was getting them to work hard. He could already tell a lot from just this one day: they were definitely going to work hard, they had great potential and they were going to learn a lot. He figured they had done enough for one day. He wanted them to get a little more comfortable with each other's souls and the way they felt. Another thing he wanted them to get used to was simply having a new teacher, he wanted to make sure they were comforable with him.

"So now that you guys have a feel for each other's souls, do you feel like you will be able to learn some techniques here soon?" Stein and Spirit both nodded, enthusiasm being expressed from Stein the most. He sure didn't show emotions often, but he liked training, that much is already known.

"Good, I feel like you guys are more than capable of learning the basics. Today was basically for me to get a baseline judgment on how well you guys can resonate, and I must say it went pretty well. Tomorrow we will start learning some new things, this is going to be the interesting stuff."

"I have been wondering," Stein started saying, "when will we begin going on missions?"

"Oh yeah, missions. You should be able to do that in a couple weeks if all goes well. We just need enough time to make sure you have everything learned so you don't get injured. We have yet to see how you guys will react in battle; I doubt anything will go wrong, but you never know. This is your first time after all, so we will just want to be cautious." Stein just nodded in agreement.

"Do you guys have anymore questions?" At this, Stein looked over and saw his partner had already fallen asleep, and he just fell over onto his side. Stein just ignored him and decided to ask his question, as it might be best to ask without Spirit listening.

"Actually, I have one."

"Well, go ahead. What's your question?" This man honestly seemed more interested than his own father ever had.

"The other day when I had gotten mad and went to throw my chair, something else happened too. This green electricity-like stuff formed around my hand, and I actually ended up shooting the chair at the wall instead. It left a pretty big mark.. I had asked my father about it; he thinks he might have an idea of what it is, but he wanted me to ask anyway."

"What does your father think it is?" Mr. Collins knew what it was, and he knew who Stein's father was, so he figured his assumption would be right. But he thought he would still ask.

"He thinks it could have been soul force- a technique. He says that I will need to develop it more so I can do it when I want to, not just on accident."

"Yes, he is definitely right. From the sounds of what you just told me, that's what it has to be. Your father also thinks so, and he is a very intelligent man; he could also do this technique, so he should be correct. There are a couple ways we could go about you practicing this: we could either wait until I have taught you and Spirit some basic things before I work selectively with you, or you could stay after class to take extra lessons."

"I would like to take extra lessons, I have more than enough time."

"Okay, that will work. We should be able to start with this in a week or so, is this a good time for you as well?"

"Yes of course; I would like to start as soon as possible."

"Good. I am glad to see you are this willing to learn, you will learn very well." Stein nodded, then heard a faint noise. He looked over to his left to see his partner getting up off the ground from a laying position to a sitting one.

"Spirit, you really need to get some sleep." His teacher started again, he was right though. He can't do anything if he keeps falling asleep like this.

They continued to talk for a little bit, a good majority of it being a lecture for Spirit. The things Mr. Collins could think of to say to him entertained Stein, this was definitely enjoyable. It was a while, then it was finally time for them to go back to the academy.

"Alright, I think it's time for us to head back inside." With that said, they all started to walk back. Stein thought he was definitely going to like this class. I mean it's a class where he gets to learn techniques and how to fight, while his teacher makes fun of Spirit. They got inside and Mr. Collins said goodbye just as Stein and Spirit did.

* * *

They got into the cafeteria and sat down, away from everyone like always. Spirit just laid his head down, glad that he could finally just sit down and not be disturbed; at least that's what he thought would happen. Stein pulled out a book, on the human digestive system of course. He was really looking forward to getting done with the section on the esophagus, he really wanted to move onto the stomach, get into the organs. He was almost there when he got interrupted. He looked up from his book, only knowing of their presence because he could see their souls. He had been using his soul perception more and more often lately, so it was becoming easier and more natural to him.

The instant the two girls sat down Spirit's head snapped upward. He was suddenly awake, of course he was. If anything was going to wake him up, it would would be girls. One girl seemed to take notice of him.. but the other oddly was focused on someone else.

"Hello," said the first girl as she stretched her hand out to Spirit, "my name is Kami. You're Spirit, right?" Spirit grabbed onto her hand, shook it in as firm a way he could manage, trying to make himself seem tough, but not rough or anything.

"Yeah, that's right. Nice to meet you, Kami."

"And it's a pleasure to meet you too." She was smiling, seeming very cheerful. She seemed like she was a fairly decent girl, Spirit liked her. But yet again, when was there a girl he didn't like? He didn't seem to notice that the other girl was paying absolutely no attention to him. At this point Stein was already reading again. If they wanted to talk to him, they would get his attention and let him know. The other girl just watched him for a little bit before introducing herself. She actually had perfect timing, because right before she went to talk, Stein looked up at her.

"Hi! My name is Marie. And if I am not mistaken, you are Franken." What is with girls! They always called him that, every single one. He just kind of sighed before responding. He closed his book, assuming she wanted to have a conversation.

"Just call me Stein. And hello Marie, I think I have seen you before."

"You have, at least I think. We had every class together, but now we have a few that are different since you are taking special lessons."

"Oh yeah, you are in my classes. You are usually sitting with Kami." The only reason he knew her name was he happened to hear her talking to Spirit.

"You know, you and Spirit are pretty impressive." Stein didn't seem to be affected by this compliment in anyway.

"I wouldn't exactly say impressive, but thank you anyway." He always tried to have manners. Sure he didn't like people, but that didn't mean he liked being a total jerk towards them.

"Well, you're very welcome. And you guys are pretty lucky too, it seems like it's really easy for you. I just can't seem to figure it out." As she said that last sentence, she seemed to get a little upset, but she quickly went back to her regular cheerful mood. She started watching Stein again. It seemed like there was something about him that interested her, but Stein didn't seem to pick this up.

Kami and Spirit continued talking, keeping each other entertained. She was the only reason he was awake right now. They didn't have much time until class, so he wasn't really sure how much longer that was going to last. It would probably be an instant blackout the minute he sits down. Mr. Reignhardt's class may have been loud, but that doesn't mean he would have any trouble sleeping. Stein had covered for him all day, taking notes to make sure Spirit got it all. He was lucky they were friends now.

At the end of the day Spirit and Stein started to walk out to go home. When they got through the doors, both girls met up with them.

"Hey, Spirit!" Kami said this, seeming glad that they were getting to go home. Spirit was fully awake again.

"Hey, Kami. Your energy must be rubbing off on me or something." She laughed.

"I guess it is. Why are you so tired today, anyway?"

"Well, I got a new dog and it kept me up all night. I really hope this doesn't keep happening every night. I need sleep, I don't know how Stein runs on only a couple hours every day. I would have dropped dead by now if I would do that!"

"Yeah, I would have too. " They continued to talk the whole way home. They actually happened to live on the same road, they just never noticed before because it's a long road, and they live on opposite ends of it. As for Stein and Marie, they didn't really say anything. Stein just kept walking, scientific thoughts floating around in his mind. Marie just kept glancing at him, enjoying the fact that they were walking together.

They lived on different roads than each other, and they had gotten to the point where they would go separate ways.

"Bye, Franken. See you tomorrow!" She was just so cheerful; she was always smiling. Stein was just the opposite, always keeping the same bored expression as he always had. But in reality, he wasn't exactly bored. He was always thinking about something, his mind always worked, so he didn't really get BORED. He just didn't like being around people, and didn't show emotions to begin with.

He sighed again, "Like I said, it's just Stein." Marie just laughed, seeming to have ignored his last remark. She kept walking down the road, basically skipping.

Stein went down the road, and started to think about her. How could someone be that happy? And why did she hang out with him of all people? This was all very confusing, he didn't have any idea how girls worked. She seemed to like staring at him.. but why? He was very basic and plain. I mean it's different, but wouldn't she get bored with that eventually? She seemed like she had a lot of energy and always needed to be doing something, so how long could she really keep this up? He basically ignores her, she is bound to get tired of it sometime. Right?

Wrong.

This exact same thing continued to happen for the next week. How was she not sick of him? Kami and Spirit certainly seemed to be happy with each other. Stein was actually starting to get bored. He couldn't concentrate on anything with Marie looking at him like that, and Spirit wasn't necessarily available. It wasn't that it freaked him out or anything, it was just kind of.. odd.

Lucky for Spirit, his puppy shut up after the first couple nights, so now he was sleeping like he should again. He was definitely thankful for this. Now he could actually pay attention in class, and now it was easier for him to stay awake when talking to people. Another positive thing that came as a result of this was that Mr. Collins no longer made fun of him about it. Now he just joked around about how Spirit is always with "that girl".

They had actually begun learning some techniques, this was pleasing Stein. He always studied them at home, looking over how to do them over and over again. He would learn this stuff. It had been a few days since the day Mr. Collins said they would meet after class, which never did actually happen. They were supposed to meet up today, so he was glad about that. He wanted to learn how to use soul force, it seemed like it would be something nice to know when in battle.

* * *

Stein had almost been late today. He had trouble sleeping, again. This was the fourth night in a row that he had had a nightmare. It was really starting to ware him out, but he managed, just like he always did. Last night's events had to have hit a new level of scary. The dream seemed to have been over a time period of 24 hours, it actually felt that way. Through the entire dream, he had a very strong acid burning through his skin. He felt every bit of it. He wasn't even sure how it would be scientifically possible for that to happen, but it was a nightmare, not real life. So he just let the whole acid thing go.

The worst part about it had to be that it was Kami that was pouring the acid over his body, so it just made it seem even more weird. He decided, even before he got to the academy, that he would not tell her about it.

This morning's walk seemed like it was the longest it had ever been; it all had an eerie feeling to it. Everything felt weird. It seemed like he just kept going and going on the same straight path until he finally reached the academy. He kept hearing this noise the entire way there, but he just tried to ignore it as best as he could.

He walked into the academy, it felt as if everyone was staring at him; in reality no one was. He almost knew this was irrational. Upon arriving at his class, he saw Spirit sitting in their regular spot, wide awake, away from Kami for the first time in a while. Finally, something normal.

Spirit seemed almost happy to see that Stein was coming, but it also seemed like something was up at the same time. Stein could tell by the look on his face, it had multiple emotions written across it all at the same time. So he decided he would ask him about it, he didn't necessarily mind talking right now.

"Hey, Spirit. Is something bothering you?" He had been right after all.

"Yeah, Kami is upset with me."

"And why is that?" He asked that question, almost in a tone that sounded like he wasn't surprised. Spirit ignored this and just answered his partner.

"She says that all I care about are her looks!"

Stein looked over at Kami to see what she was doing, she actually looked like she was mad. Marie had apparently gave up trying to talk to her, so she decided to doodle flowers and other girly things in her notebook.

"It's not true! I care about all of her. She should know that, it's not like I do anything to make her think that."

"You do seem to stare at her a lot," Stein said that, remembering the looks Marie gave him. She was definitely nice to him; a lot nicer than anyone else he knew, and definitely compared to girls. No other girl even paid attention to him. She would always keep him company when Spirit was with Kami, but Stein was still a little annoyed by her. Like I have mentioned before, she is just too cheerful, especially for Stein.

She still insisted on calling him Franken, so he just gave up. He just figured it was a girl thing, and that he wouldn't be able to change her mind. That was another thing: she was really stubborn, and she would never budge. Stein had found himself on several occasions carrying something for her, and he never remembered himself saying yes to the request, not even once. But once he started, he just carried it the rest of the way there. I mean, he wasn't just going to set it down and leave whatever it is he was holding. Like I said, he had manners.

Spirit's mood seemed to improve when they got to there special lessons, it always had made them happier. Mr. Collins was a really good teacher, and it was actually quite hard to get confused when he would teach. He always explained things very well; not to mention the fact that he was a generally good-spirited man, so he was just pleasant to be around.

They started to practice some things they had already learned, like how to block and what are some good ways to strike at an opponent. Their instructor decided that they knew it well enough, and if they needed more practice later they could always go back and work on it some more. Today, they would start trying to preform a super-skill. The witch hunter. This was a fairly basic move, but they are just starting out so they will have to see how it goes.

They started to resonate, things were going well. Stein started to feel a little off, but he quickly shook it off and regained his focus on resonating.

"Alright, I need you guys to resonate even more strongly than you have before. This is because in order to preform witch hunter, the connection has to be fairly good; otherwise it will not work. You guys know how to do this, I know you do. Just give it a try." After he finished talking they started to resonate, building it up more and more. Before they knew it, they were actually at a really strong level. So they tried it.

They could feel it, something was different, but it was correct. It had worked, but only for a very short amount of time. Their resonance broke, causing a large flash, a gust of wind to come and loud noise accompanying it all. This was their first try after all, considering that they did pretty well.

Stein asked Spirit if he was ready to go again, and he said he was, so they tried again and again and again. They got a little closer every time, but they weren't quite there yet. It would just require a little more work, that's all. They ran out of time, and so they all went back inside. Both Mr. Collins and Spirit felt really good about what they had accomplished so far, but Stein felt otherwise.

He was actually kind of mad at himself, and partially Spirit, but of course he didn't say anything to him. This was because he knows they can do it, they just haven't gotten there yet; he wants to get there, and be able to preform the skill perfectly. In most cases, he isn't a very patient person, and this just happened to be one of those common cases. He was also mad that he hadn't worked on his soul force yet, meaning he hasn't done it since the first time. He absolutely hated that.

* * *

He was beginning to get very agitated when he walked into the cafeteria, as when he walked in he saw Spirit was all over Kami trying to convice her that he cares about more than just her looks. He seemed to be getting to her, it started to look harder for her to stay mad at him. This was something else that he hated. He didn't understand how he could go after her like that. He felt that Spirit shouldn't have to prove himself to her, and that it was stupid and pointless either way.

Marie sat there, happily eating an apple, smiling like always. She was the only one in their little group that actually ever ate anything. It wasn't much usually, but it was still more than the others.

"Hey, Franken!" That was one of the nice things about her, she always greeting him in a way that made it seem like she was actually happy to see him, which was something not many people did. In most cases, she is the only one that did.

"Hello, Marie." He was still mad, so he wasn't exactly up for talking. Marie could tell just by the way he looked, she was always good at reading him. There wasn't much there, but whatever _was_ there, she could pick up instantly.

"What's wrong? It seems like something is bothering you."

"I just wish I could have started working on my soul force attack sooner than today. We are supposed to go on a mission within the coming week, and I would like to be able to use it then." He just told her about the whole soul force thing, he didn't feel like talking about their difficulties with witch hunter.

"Oh, well I'm sure you will be fine! You always learn really quickly; just wait, you'll see." She also seemed to have a lot of confidence in him, but when it came to training, basically everyone did.

"I'm not counting on it."

"Why are you always so grumpy? Come on, cheer up! I don't just think you can do this, I know you can."

"Thank you, Marie. Like I said, I am not counting on it. But I can promise you one thing, I will try my best."

"Good." She smiled at him, taking another bite out of her apple. She seemed to have gotten him to come around at least a little bit, and that was enough for her. Stein continued reading, and just like Marie, Spirit seemed to have made some progress. Stein looked over, seeing Spirit basically up in Kami's face, begging for forgiveness, even though he had never done anything wrong.

"Kami! Please forgive me. I promise, I care about you for more than your looks! Come on, you're funny, smart, and I love your personality. You have to trust me." They weren't dating or anything, but they sure had connected over the last week or so; now they really seemed like a couple, and didn't leave each other very often. It was actually quite obnoxious to the people around them, it was just a constant thing.

"Fine, but only because you were actually willing to beg me this long. That must mean something, I guess." At hearing this Spirit instantly started to get excited, he was practically bouncing in his seat. He hated it when she was mad at him, things would always get silent then. He hated silence very, very much.

It was time for them to go to class, so Stein put his book away and Marie put her little paper bag into her backpack. Like I mentioned before, she didn't bring much, but just a couple little things. She actually got hungry pretty easily, which didn't match up with how skinny she was.

"Wait!" Marie called to Stein as she struggled to get her backpack on her shoulder, trying to run to catch up to him at the same time. He just kind of turned his head to look over his should, then stopped after taking a few more steps. He never really had to say much to her anyway, so he didn't particularly mind walking with her.

They started down the hallway, it seeming like an hour before they reached their room, just like it always did. You would figure they would start to feel of a more normal length after a while, but you would be wrong in saying that.

They got to the class, and Stein sat down next to Spirit while Marie headed over to Kami. Mr. Reignhardt's class was always annoying, but yet relieving at the same time. It was loud, so that's what made it annoying; the relieving part is that you barely had to do anything, meaning you could just relax really.

His class was about soul wavelengths just like many of the other classes, but his was a little different. The class was based on your own personal wavelength, keeping it in balance, relaxed. He gave them tips for calming themselves down during battle; you could get scared in some cases, and this makes fighting a lot harder to be honest. So you would need to get that taken care of before something bad happens, and that's exactly what he helped with.

They often did meditating exercises, boring stuff along that line. This never exactly flyed with Stein. His thoughts were always going, he really couldn't get himself to relax. During Spirit's period with little to no sleep, this class was his favorite because he could sleep, and the teacher would never even notice.

The teacher said that today they were just going to take a break and practice their "social health", which meant they would just get to talk to each other for the period. Whenever the teacher would do this, Stein would usually spend the period reading while Spirit babbled on to him, pretending to be listening to him by adding a head nod or a "yeah" or uh-huh" every now and then; it seemed to be pretty efficient.

While Spirit was saying absolutely useless thing after thing and Stein was uh-huhing his way through the class, Kami and Marie where one the other side of the room talking to each other.

"Oh, Marie," Kami said, "isn't Spirit amazing?"

"I guess he's fine."

"He's fine? How could you even say that?"

"I am just not interested in him. Besides, he is basically like all of the other guys. I like a guy that's different, not afraid to be his own person. You know, be unique."

"Yeah, I get what you mean. But Spirit is different!"

"Whatever you say, Kami." Marie's opinion on who she liked and didn't like was fairly strong, anyone could tell this.

"Anyway, how's training going for you?" She was a little annoyed by Marie, so she just tried to move on.

"I guess you could say it's going pretty well. The only problem is that my partner doesn't seem to catch on very fast, so it usually takes us a while to do stuff. I just wish my meister was a little better, that's all. It doesn't matter much though, in the end what matters is that you can resonate well."

"Yeah, you're definitely right there. And my weapon is the same way, I need someone that can do a little more."

* * *

Stein was glad, class was finally over. That honestly had to be one of the longest periods for him, but he had no clue why. It was a little harder for him to shut out Spirit, so that most likely played a part in his problem. They walked out, of course not forgetting the two girls that were their friends now. All of them left, all except for Stein. He had to go meet up with Mr. Collins so he could work on his soul force.

He got to Mr. Tredways' room, seeing his instructor standing there waiting for him.

"Hey, Stein! You ready to go?"

"Yep, I'm way past ready."

"Glad to hear that, let's head out then. This should be fun; I don't get to train people to use this technique very often. In fact, the last person I ever helped out with this was your father." Stein didn't know he had taught him, but it did make sense. His father said he was a good teacher and knew how exactly he taught, he just didn't know it was from personal experience.

They were out in the woods, ready to begin. Stein had waited way too long for this, he was getting very impatient. He didn't know if he would learn it in time, but like he promised Marie, he would try.

"What you will need to do right now is focus on getting the "electricity", your soul wavelength, to surround your hand. Once you learn this properly, you should be able to have it around your hand and it stay there until you stop it or shoot it into something. Just try feeling it around your hand, picture it, focus."

And this is exactly what he did.

He started to remember it happening the last time, and started to think of the way it looked and felt. He started picturing it happening again, focusing on only that. He could almost feel it, but not quite. So he just kept trying, over and over and over again until finally, it came. It was the same green electricity that covered his hand the last time, only this time he could actually take time to look at and examine it. He kept flipping his hand over so he could see the other side, it was all so new and different. And although he was constantly learning new techniques now, they were never like this, so it intrigued him even more.

"Good. Now I want you to try acting like you are going to shoot it into something, but just do it into the air. This won't actually release the wavelength, so you will just get to practice and get used to the movement. Go ahead and try some things." So away he went, striking at the air until he got used to a certain way.

"Now that you have gotten the hang of that, I want you to try to hit me with it. I want you to try to hit a moving target. I should be able to avoid it, and since you are just starting it won't hurt very much if I do happen to get hit." This was different to Stein, a teacher had never told him to hit them before. He just took advantage of it and started going after him.

Mr. Collins' movements were very swift, he could tell he was a three star meister. He dodged Stein's attacks with complete ease, just sidestepping him most of the time. Stein actually wanted to hit him. He had felt it go into the chair, and on accident. So there were two things: it would feel different since it was a human body, not a chair; this time he would actually get to focus on it and pay attention to what it's like instead of it being on accident, so this would be very different, overall. So he wanted to try it, it was something new.

He was starting to get mad about the fact that he couldn't get him. His movements were beginning to get more aggressive, he was pushing himself harder.

Mr. Collins could start to see this, but he just kept going. It was actually starting to get a little harder for him to move out of the way. There were a few close calls, then one after the other. This happened until eventually, Stein got him.

He pushed his fist into the instructors abdomen, pushing him outward, the wavelength going through the man's entire body, sending him flying just a short distance since it was a new concept to him; thus meaning it wouldn't be as strong. He had forgotten how much it actually hurt, after all he hadn't had someone's wavelength go through him in over five years.

It actually hurt Stein as well. From his struggle, the madness started to go through him a little bit more. He felt it, but didn't know what it was. When Stein hit him, he could feel his teachers wavelength hit with his. Since they were different wavelengths and Stein wasn't able to tolerate it yet at this point, it actually caused him pain. With the feeling of this man's wavelength and the madness both affecting his soul, it didn't feel very good at all. He did a very good job at hiding this though, as he just stood there watching his teacher.

"I guess your attack is stronger than I thought it was.." His teacher said this, pain running through his voice. Stein wanted to laugh at his pain, but contained himself. For some odd reason, Stein was still really angry. He had gotten him, so he should be happy, right? Wrong.

His teacher was finally able to get over the pain and stand up fully, Stein still said nothing and continued to watch him.

"I think we have practiced enough for now, you seem to have a good concept of it for the first lesson. We will meet again next week. Until then you can practice at home now that you know what to do." After he said that they both started going back. Stein's mind was racing, he had no clue why. Everything felt very.. weird.

His teacher was actually impressed, he didn't expect him to get nearly as far as he had. This was especially true considering the fact that he didn't think he could move that fast. "This kid definitely has potential, I can tell. This could end up being a very strong technique of his if he works on it enough. It will be very helpful in battle, especially because he can use it to cause internal damage. I am just lucky he didn't do that to me.." Mr. Collins thought to himself, noticing that he was at the academy and Stein had already started down the road.

Stein just started hurrying, trying as hard as he could to ignore the noise in his head. But it didn't do much help; it never stopped, and felt like it was just pounding into his head over and over again. He didn't have a clue what this was, and he even forgot about trying to find a solution to it.

He kept feeling something right behind him following him, almost about to touch him. But every time he would turn around to see what it was, nothing was there. He was getting very annoyed by all of this, it was causing him indescribable anger. He started walking down the road as fast as he could, almost running. He just wanted to get home and read or something, he needed to calm himself down.

When he finally got home he ran to his room, ignoring his mothers greetings, locking the door behind him as he entered it. He sunk to the floor, listening to the echo of his door being slammed fade away. He felt crowded, closed in, and like nothing could make any of these feelings go away. He... couldn't explain or grasp any of it. He had felt things similar to this, but not nearly as severe.

The noise in his head started to buzz louder and louder, it was starting to get to the point where it was extremely painful. He just wanted to scream. Instead, he laughed.

He stood up and got to his feet, wobbling slightly. He walked over to his desk, giggling like there was no tomorrow. He started to swiping everything off of his desk; once there was nothing on it, he tipped it over, practically throwing it. After he did that he completely trashed the rest of his room. He tipped over all of his book cases, dressers, and everything else in that was inside that room; of course he was laughing and making unidentifiable noises the entire time he did this.

His mother could hear very loud banging, smashing, and shattering (from his test tubes) noises coming from his room, and it was starting to become pretty loud. She had no clue what on earth he could possibly be doing in there, and was honestly starting to get worried. She was sitting on the couch, and his room was back the hall, so that says something. His father was sitting at the table reading out of a magazine he had, various articles that would be of help to his current research and experiments. He could also hear, but didn't pay any attention to it.

His mother then got up from the couch and walked down the hall. She stood outside the door and pressed her ear up to the door, then noticing that he was laughing like a total maniac. She tried to open the door, then remembered he always had it locked, so she would have to get him to open it himself.

"Sweetie, is everything okay in there?" She said this in as sweet of a tone as she could manage, she needed him to open the door. She stood there for a second, not receiving an answer, the laughter and smashing continued. She tried again.

"Franken?" At hearing his name, he became totally outraged. He hated his first name. So he through his somewhat large desk at the metal door, screaming "Stop calling me that!" as he did it. This obviously made a very loud noise, and his mother's ear was still pressed up against his door. This hurt her ears tremendously. So she pulled her head away from the door, saying "Ow.." while putting her hand on ear.

His father also heard that, and it actually grabbed his attention. He looked up from his magazine, but just looked back down after thinking for a minute. He was speculating what it could have been that he had just thrown at the door. He knew that the only thing that could have possibly made that loud a noise with him still being able to pick it up and actually throw it, would have to be the desk. He just continued to read after figuring it out, ignoring his son's breakdown or tantrum, whatever you want to call it.

She couldn't get him to stop or open his door, so she decided to get his father to help. She walked down the hall, looking at his father wondering how he didn't hear what was going on. He heard, just didn't feel the need to do anything about it.

"Honey, I don't know what he is doing in there, but I think something is wrong. I can't get him to open the door, can you come do something about this? He's really starting to worry me."

"I am sure he is fine, just let it go."

She was very angry at her husband for not even caring about their son, or what might be going on inside that room. So she stormed down the hall and went into her room. She decided that she was going to give him the silent treatment, as if he would care anyway.

His father knew exactly what was going on. He could tell by the way Stein's soul felt, it was definitely off. He could tell that he was being affected by the madness. But since he knew by personal experience the degree of it, he knew nothing major would happen.

His father had been looking at Stein's soul long enough that he could start to feel the madness within it, and now it was affecting him as well.

He was feeling the same want to completely tear something apart, but he had a different method of relieving that need. He didn't tear apart rooms (usually), instead he dissected stuff. He used to trash his room on a regular basis, but now since he knew a lot more about science and had been used to dealing with madness, he could handle it better and could concentrate those feelings into dissecting and dismembering animals and various living things.

He got up from the table and went back into his office/lab in the most calm fashion he could. His lab was in a completely different hallway than the rest of the rooms for obvious reasons. Lucky for him, he had a specimen already prepared for him (as he usually did). All he had to do was grab his scalpel off the tray sitting next to the table, and he could begin.

He started to carve into and jab his knife into the animal that forcibly laid in front of him. He kept shoving the knife in and out of it's body over and over again, tearing through tissues, muscle, skin, and apparently blood vessels as well. He could always tell when he hit a major area of blood supply because a lot more blood would come rushing out onto the table; all of this caused his father much pleasure, causing the laughter to grow louder and louder.

While his father was in his office, currently ripping one of the organism's legs off with his bare hands, Stein stood in his room breathing very heavily, trying to get a hold of himself. He was trying very hard and struggling a little bit, but he kept himself from doing any further damage to his already wrecked room.

Just when he thought he had himself under control, he started again.

He walked over to his door and started to kick and punch it over and over again, ignoring the pain it was causing. He just needed a way to get his anger out, so he did that. Then he decided to practice his soul force again.

He turned around and started shooting his wavelength into everything. Within a few minutes, most of his furniture was demolished. Wow was that kid strong when he was mad (both kinds). After a couple more minutes, the madness completely left him. He dropped to the ground, putting his head in his hands before tilting onto his side, then curling into a ball.

He screamed, starting to feel the pain caused from his breakdown. The skin on his knuckles was completely torn, blood oozing out of the wounds. He had several bruises, some in places he didn't even know were possible from what had been doing.

He laid on the ground still in a ball, now clenching his fists, trying to ignore the pain as best as he could.

He got up from the floor and unlocked his door, opening and shutting it as quietly as he could. He really didn't want to face his parents right now. Next he went into his bathroom to clean out and bandage everything.

He started to pour hydrogen peroxide onto his cuts, letting it sit for a couple minutes. Then he wiped it and the accumulated blood off of his hands, putting bandages on next.

He put everything away, turned off the light, and left to go back to his room. He remembered the mess he had made, dreading having to clean everything up. He would have to explain this to his parents eventually; they will need to get him new furniture now that most of his is in pieces on his floor.

He managed to get to his room unseen. When he opened his door and saw everything again, he just made a sort of groaning noise; he seriously didn't want to clean this up, but since he knew he had to he got started.

After a couple hours he had most of everything thrown out. The stuff that wasn't damaged was put in piles on his floor. He liked everything to be fairly organized, so of course it was sorted so that the similar things were together. He was honestly exhausted, due to multiple reasons: even though he didn't know what was effecting him, the madness was starting to wear him down, he had just had a temper tantrum, and just spent the last couple hours cleaning all of the furniture out of his room. Anyone would be exhausted from this.

He knew that he would wake up way too early if he went to bed now, but he didn't care. Lucky for him, he didn't destroy his bed. It would be pretty hard for him to pick that up, let alone throw it across the room. He did, however, tear apart his pillow. He completely tore that into little strips in seconds, so now there was just stuffing and cloth left. He threw that out, of course. He sure was glad that he still had his blanket; for some odd reason he had trouble falling asleep without one.

He laid down on his bed, feeling just how low his head was now that he had no pillow. He felt pretty sore, I mean he just had extra training today on top of all of this. He started to use his soul perception to see where his parents where. He felt his mom's soul first out of the two. She was up at his door, but her soul felt as if she was very relieved.

She stood on the other side listening, very glad that he had calmed down. She could hear him go to the bathroom, and clean everything out of his room as well, so she knew that he was fine. Looks like her husband was right after all. She still didn't want to talk to him though; just because he was right it doesn't mean he wasn't being careless.

He could feel her walk off into her room, and judging by where her soul was now, she was in bed too.

Next he felt his father's soul. It felt... different that usual. It felt very chaotic. He didn't know what was going on, but he could tell that he was in his lab.

He was sitting on the floor of his lab, laughing as he felt the heart he currently had in his hand, moving it from hand to hand almost as if it were a slinky. He had blood completely covering his hands, it was splattered throughout his hair, and his coat was completely stained. His lab was a complete mess, just like he was.

His table and cart were both tipped over, so all of the blood was on the floor. He was actually sitting in all of it, paying absolutely no attention to that, and the fact that there were organs and tissue everywhere as well. Then he started to hallucinate.

He saw his wife come into his lab, and she tried to take the heart away from him. So he screamed "Get away from me!" As loud as he could right now, laughter spilling out of him at the end.

She just kept walking towards him.

"It's mine, not your's." She said this in a sweet, almost mocking tone, aggravating him to no end.

"NO! IT'S MINE!" He yelled this, much louder than the last time. His grin grew even wider as he picked up the scalpel and threw it at her. She just became smoke and faded away as it passed right through her, sticking into his desk.

He just laughed more as he watched this, falling over into the blood. Now he was laying in the red liquid, it totally covering the surface of the right side of his face.

Stein could hear all of this, it honestly freaked him out. He didn't know what was happening to his father; he had heard this kind of stuff happen to him many times, but he still didn't know that it was madness, the exact same thing that had just effected him earlier. He was too scared to go check on him, especially after hearing him yell that loud.

His mother heard the yelling as well, but she was used to it by now. It's actually surprising that she hadn't caught onto the fact that Stein was experiencing that stuff as well. She had been married to his father for many years, she knew the signs like the back of her hand, and has actually helped him through a lot over the years. So why hadn't she figured it out by now? Maybe she was just too preoccupied with other things, who knows.

Stein continued to use his soul perception. The noise and laughter coming from his dad's lab died down after a little bit; his soul was still off, but at least he was more under control now. A little more time passed, and his soul was basically back to the way it usually was.

He finally got off of the floor, feeling blood drip down his face as he did. He put his table and cart back in place; next he put the tray and tools back. He had to walk over to his desk and take the knife out of the wood, then walk back over to put it away. After that Stein could tell that he went into the basement. He was putting his bloody clothes down there to be washed. Once he came up he cleaned all of the blood, organs, and various parts off the floor.

He obviously needed to shower, so he did that next. He was in there a while, but what else could you expect from someone that was covered in blood? Surprisingly enough, it's actually hard to get blood out of your hair; it stains pretty bad when it's gray.

Stein been laying there for a while, and it was getting hard for him to stay awake now. He decided that since he doesn't sleep much most of the time, he could use this as an opportunity to catch up on what he had missed. He knew that it was bad to sleep as little as he did, he just didn't care enough to do anything about it; he could be studying or experimenting instead. He actually ended up falling asleep pretty quickly.

His dad sat in his office, and stopped typing for a second to think.

"The madness wavelengths seem to be stronger than usual.. this isn't going to be good. Stein seems to be affected by it more and more every day. He has never actually had a breakdown before, just nightmares and little things. I seriously doubt it will be much longer before something serious happens; I am going to need to keep an eye on him. Maybe I can inform Mr. Collins, he can probably watch over him while he is at school."

He had actually seen Stein when it was affecting him already, but he didn't know it was that, and Stein didn't either.

**Coming up with what Stein's dad was dissecting was the hardest part of this entire chapter.. it made me want to bash my face off my desk. So in the end, I decided to leave it up to your imagination. Sorry if I introduced Marie and Kami too fast or made her relationship with Spirit too much for right now. Kami's personality might be off, I haven't seen her character anywhere at all, so I am just guessing. I personally feel like I am getting better at dialogue and like it's starting to flow a little better. This is where it's going to start to pick up a little more. I. CAN'T. FREAKING. WAIT. I have so much stuff planned..**


	5. Franken's Great Idea

**Hey! I actually got this one done pretty dang fast, I must say. Ahh poor Stein.. You'll see what I mean later. Hope I didn't go overboard.. I leave that judgment up to you.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 5 Franken's Great Idea

Stein's dad was up and about at an unusually early time, and if it was early for him, then it's definitely early. But there was an actual reason for this, and no, it was not because of a nightmare; he actually intended on getting up at this time.

It was 4:45 when we was leaving the house, trying to make the least amount of noise as possible. He didn't want to wake up anyone, and since he knew that Stein was up at very early times, either due to a nightmare or just wanting to do something, he wanted to go unnoticed. If Stein did happen to be awake, he would most likely get found out since he can use his soul perception now, but he figured he was still sleeping because his soul was very calm.

He did happen to be asleep, and his dad did happen to be able to slip out of the house without waking anyone; he was thankful for this. It's not that he was going to do anything bad, he just really didn't want to answer any questions. It didn't really matter if Stein's mother knew, Stein is the one that couldn't find out.

He started going down the road, the sky still being pitch black and the wind blowing, actually making it kind of chilly out. The only light in the dark city came from street lights and lamps inside of other people's house, all of it working with the light coming from the moon to illuminate the streets enough for him to see where he was going.

He worked his way through the city, getting closer and closer to his destination. The entire way there, he thought about how his son was experiencing the madness wavelengths, just like he does on a daily basis. One of his biggest concerns with this is that he doesn't want it to keep him from training, especially when he is just starting out. But the thing with madness is, you can't do a single thing about it.

It just keeps coming, spreading more and more, more on some days than others. It spreads like a disease, until finally it completely engulfs you, and is no longer within your control. No matter how much you don't want it to take over, it does. It makes you completely lose all control you once had.

He walked down the last road he had to go on to get where he needed to be, realizing that he had taken 20 minutes to get there. That is exactly why he went that early; he would take some time there, then also take at least another 20 minutes to get back home. The reason why he had to get back as early as possible is that he needed to be home before Stein woke up. Since his father almost never leaves the house, he would question him.

He honestly wasn't used to the outside air, it actually felt rather nice. It was different than being stuck inside all day like he usually was.

He walked up onto the person's porch, knocking once he reached the door. He knew the person would be up since they would have to get ready for work soon. He stood for a couple of minutes, and they came to the door, opening it as they did so.

The man stood there for a couple seconds with a confused look on his face, then seemed to be pleased about seeing the man standing on his porch.

"Goodmorning, Mr. Collins."

"Goodmorning, Franken. What brings you here, and especially this early?" The man seemed to be fairly confused, but it's understandable. And Stein was actually a Jr., but no one ever mentioned that, it wasn't something that was really important.

"I need to inform you of something, is now a good time?"

"Yeah, in that case, come inside. That might be a little better." After that, Mr. Collins led Stein's father into his living room. He noticed that is was actually fairly clean, only a few things were laying around. His house didn't seem to be too expensive, but it was still pretty decent.

Mr. Collins directed his dad towards the couch, and he sat down in a chair that was to the right of it. He had a TV on, along with a few lamps, giving enough light for them to see everything well enough.

"So, how's Keira been? I heard she got a job as a nurse at the hospital."

"Yes, she did. And she has been doing very well, thank you for asking."

"I am glad to hear everything is going well. I started teaching your son recently, and he has been doing very well. I see some major potential in him, he is going to be able to do a lot by the time he graduates. I can tell you're his father, he really takes after you."

"Yeah, that's what I came to talk to you about. I am afraid he has been taking after me too much. I need to know, have you noticed anything weird about him lately?"

"Well, now that you mention it, I have. His soul is off sometimes, but I can't really tell what it is. And when he was practicing soul force yesterday, something seemed wrong. He seemed to be getting abnormally angry, and there wasn't even any reason, it was really weird. He actually ended up hitting me with his wavelength.. it hurt pretty bad. I didn't expect it to be that powerful yet; if he works on it, he will really be able to use it to his advantage."

"Yes, he came to me about that originally. Is there anything else that you have noticed?"

"Actually, there is. After he hit me I decided we had practiced enough for the day, so we started to go to the academy. When we got to the academy, I noticed that he had actually left me and was already on his way down the road. He was going at a fairly fast pace, it seemed like something was bothering. He has also just seemed generally more tired lately, he seems exhausted, like something is waring him down."

"That's basically what I expected you to say. And I have been noticing this for a while now, but haven't found it to be much of an issue until yesterday. He came home and completely tore apart his room.. he actually destroyed all of his furniture. He has never had a complete breakdown before, so this may be a problem." He sighed and looked at the ground for a moment, looking up again before continuing.

"I think he is experiencing the madness wavelengths. I honestly don't know what else it could be." Directly after his father said this, Mr. Collins' facial expression looked shocked.

"When he got home from his first day at the academy, he came to me with an issue. I told him that it was nothing and to just forget it, but I know it wasn't nothing, I think he was hallucinating. He has also been having nightmares very frequently, almost every night. Half of the time he can't even get back to sleep anymore, so most nights he only gets a couple hours of sleep, if any. Also, I can feel it in his soul, the madness. Nothing major had happened until yesterday, and I am afraid that eventually something worse might happen. I need you to do something for me."

Mr. Collins seemed to be completely shocked, he really didn't expect to hear this, and now he understood why he was there so early. He tried to come up with an answer, and did so after a few seconds.

"What is it?"

"I need you to watch over him when he is at the academy. You need to make sure he doesn't do anything, he could end up hurting someone if he freaks out like that again and he happens to be around anyone. He already hit you, and luckily when he got home he locked himself in his room. I am sure he could have unlocked the door, but this was probably a way to help himself stay in his room."

"Yes, of course, I will watch over for him. It is no problem. I don't want any of the students to get hurt."

"I know how powerful madness can be, it can make you do terrible things that you have no control over and end up regretting later. I don't want him to have the same guilt I have when he gets older, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. I know we can't control this, but it will just help to keep an eye on him."

"Yeah, it will be best."

"Yes, that is for sure. If you see him start to act weird or like something is wrong, or if his soul starts to feel off, do whatever you need to to keep him away from the other kids. Just try not to make it very noticable that that's what you're trying to do. I just don't want him to know, at least not quite yet." He didn't really know why this was, and neither did Mr. Collins, but for some reason he also agreed.

"Yeah, I will do what's necessary. I will try my best to not make it obvious, I will think of something."

"Thank you for helping, I appreciate it. I could have asked one of the other teachers, but I know you the best and all of the other teachers have actual classes; you will be able to stay near him easier than everyone else."

"Don't worry, it's no problem. I am glad to help you out."

"I better get going, I really need to be back before he wakes up." As he said this, him and Mr. Collins stood up and started to walk over to the door.

"Yeah, he should be up soon." He opened the door, and his dad started to walk out, but turned around to say goodbye.

"Goodbye, Mr. Collins. It was nice seeing you again." Mr. Collins had to be one of the people he tolerated the most, they were actually fairly close. He knew the most about him, and actually helped him a lot. He taught him a lot of the techniques he knows, and helped him out during some of the times when the madness would start to get to him more. They were basically best friends; not so much anymore now that they graduated from the academy, but they were when they were still attending classes.

"It was nice seeing you too. And Franken, try to stay out of trouble, okay?"

"I'll try." His father gave him a smirk as he put his hands in the pockets of his lab coat, then turned around and started down the stairs. Mr. Collins shut the door and started getting ready to head to the academy.

Stein woke up at 5:30, realizing that he didn't have to go to the academy for at least another hour. Even though it was only 5:30, he still got a lot of sleep since he fell asleep so early. He definitely didn't want to sleep anymore than he already had, so he decided to read.

He got up and walked over to the little pile of things sitting on his floor that had his book in it. He picked it up, and read the title "The Human Digestive System". Most kids would bore themselves to death if they tried to read this, and probably wouldn't understand a single thing it said. Stein, on the other hand, loves it; this is the most interesting thing to him in the world, and he understands every word of it.

He headed back over to his bed and sat down on it, leaning against the walls with his knees almost to his chest, leaving enough room for him to have his book in front of him, resting on his knees. Opening it to page 120, he started to read about the different muscles in the stomach. Soon he started to grin a bit, and not because he loved it so much, it was more of a mad grin. He didn't even notice for 20 minutes, but when he did, he quickly made his face go back to his regular bored expression. He didn't know why he was grinning, but he still didn't like it.

His dad walked through the door, walking back into his lab as quietly as he could manage. Once he got in, he walked over to his desk and sat down. He figured that Stein didn't notice he was gone since he didn't come in and ask where he was, and he was right, luckily. So he started going back to his regular activities.

Stein read a little bit longer, ending at the part that talks about the villi in the small intestines. It was actually 6:30 now, so he decided that he could start to get ready.

He walked into his bathroom and took his shirt off, then walked over and turned on the water to take a shower. Next while he let the water warm up a bit he took off everything else, and stepped inside. When he got in, he felt the warm water on his skin and stood there for a few minutes before realizing that he still didn't actually wash anything. So he started to wash everything, then got out and dried off when he finished.

His hair was always wet for a while after since it was so long, but he always tried to get it as best as he possibly could with a towel to keep it from dripping water everywhere. Once he got dressed he brushed his teeth and turned out the lights lastly, closing the door behind him as he left.

He walked down the wallway and across his living room, seeing his mother leave as he did so. He used his soul perception to see where his dad was, even though he already knew where, and he was, of course, in his lab. He could tell that he was just sitting at his desk like he always was when he wasn't dissecting something, which seemed to be less often lately, so it was actually a little surprising that he was at his desk.

He walked into his room, seeing that it was now 7:00. He figured that it was late enough, and that he could be at the academy a little early. He didn't really feel like reading anymore, so he might as well go get some exercise or something.

He walked out the door after grabbing his stuff, and started going down the road. He noticed that it was still dark out, but the sun was starting to come up. Since the sun hadn't came out yet, it was still a little cold out; it didn't help any that the wind was blowing kind of hard and his hair was still wet, all of things added up to him feeling pretty cold.

He was halfway up his road when he looked into his neighbor's window, seeing them looking out at him. People always watched him if they knew he was going by, but he never knew why that was. The reason actually is that since he is Franken's son, they don't exactly trust him. It isn't fair, but they figure he is going to be like his dad. It's not that he is a bad person or anything, but they know how he can get.

He just ignored them and kept going. When he started to turn onto the next road, he looked both ways before crossing over to the right side. There was one thing though, he looked back to see if any cars were behind him; he didn't see any cars, but he saw a large man dressed in all black.

He was very tall, and certainly looked strong. Stein didn't usually get scared, but for some reason this time he did. To be honest, he was terrified. The reason why he was so scared was that ontop of being so large, the man was also a scythe. He had his arms transformed into very sharp and long blades.

At first, Stein wasn't really sure what the man was doing out there, but then he soon realized. The man started running toward him with an evil look across his face. When he started getting a little closer, Stein realized this man was coming to get him. He didn't know what he would do to him if he caught him, so he began sprinting as fast as he could down the road.

He knew that he was close to the academy at this point, so if he could just get there he should be safe. He started to go faster and faster, almost tripping a few times. Every now and then he would look back at the man, seeing that he was getting closer and closer, and that his face looked even more evil each time. He could tell the man was trying harder to get him, and that he was almost to him.

He also saw that the academy was very close, so he started going faster than he had before. He was just about there, and looked back one final time; he saw the man was at his back with his arm pulled back, ready to carve into him. His face had a large grin on it, and he didn't have two eyes. Not two, but three. His eyes weren't the same as they were before.. they were different. He had seen them before somewhere else, how could he have them?

When Stein looked back, right after he saw the man he felt himself hit something. As he hit the object in front of him, the man disappeared, and he realized that he was right outside the academy. He let out a very quiet and short scream, and looked ahead of himself, seeing that he didn't hit something, but someone; the person he ran into was Mr. Collins.

"Hey, Stein, what's up?" Due to his talk with Stein's dad this morning, he basically knew what was going on.

"Oh.. nothing.. sorry.." Stein said this while trying to catch his breath, avoiding to make eye contact with his teacher.

"Are you sure? You seem pretty freaked out."

"Yeah, it's really nothing," Stein said this, walking away from his teacher as he did so. Mr. Collins then knew that his father really was right. He had seen that he was getting more tired lately and the way he acted when they were training yesterday, but now he knew for sure. He knew he had been seeing stuff, there is no other reason for him to have done that.

Stein walked into the academy, getting looks from the students that had seen this. Mr. Collins walked in after him, making sure he could still see him. Spirit saw his partner and ran over to him, seeing that he was out of breath.

"Hey, what happened?"

"Oh.. nothing, trust me. I was just running, that's all," Stein said this in between breaths as he leaned against a locker. Spirit knew that there was something off, but let it go anyway.

"Oh.. okay, whatever you say. Hey, did you hear that Miss. Parson is coming back today? Maybe she will tell us why she was gone so long. I seriously hated having Mr. Reighnhardt for two periods every day."

"I know.. his class.. sure is annoying. I am glad that she... is coming back." He was starting to be able to breath a little better now, and he was glad about that. Miss. Parson had been gone for just over a week now, and they were beyond ready to see her again; especially Spirit, he really missed getting to see how "hot" she was every day. They didn't know why she was gone, she just left without warning. At least they hadn't actually started learning anything yet at that point.

They started walking down the hall to go to class, and Mr. Collins followed. At least right now he had an excuse to be behind them; he could say that he was on his way to Mr. Tredway's room, which he really was.

They walked in and got up to there usual spot, and looked over to see Kami and Marie coming over. Lately they had been sitting with them instead of with their other friends. They didn't mind at all; Spirit just always talks to Kami, and Marie is content with just being with Stein.

"Goodmorning, Franken." She said this, smiling at him like she always did. He had to admit, she was a sweet girl, but that still didn't mean he had any feelings for her.

"Goodmorning, Marie," He said this, pulling out his book, opening to the section that was about the villi, just where he left off. Lately he had been a little less grumpy towards her, but not by much. He was just getting used to her; he wasn't used to having such a cheerful person around him all the time, but now it was becoming more natural.

"I heard Miss. Parson is coming back, I can't wait to see her! She is so nice, I hope I am like her when I grow up."

"Yeah, she is a really nice person. You already seem a lot like her." After he said this Marie's smile got even bigger than before, and she started to blush slightly. She loved knowing that he thought she was nice; if only he would like her the way she liked him.

"Only in my dreams," She thought to herself, looking down at her feet.

"Today we will be learning to deal with fear, as this can affect the way you fight significantly." Stein remembered how scared he was earlier, and started to think that he would need to write down what had happened, just like he always did. Stein has still ever since his first day at the academy, wrote down everything that he has seen that wasn't real.

Lately he has been hallucinating more and more, and his notebook was actually starting to get pretty full. He even had a tally in the back of how many nightmares he has had, and he also had a place where he has what day he had them on as well. He has had so many nightmares that if he didn't write it down, he would have lost track a long time ago. He had been having them long before he started attending the academy, so you can imagine just how many times he has woken up in the middle of the night, panting and sweating, due to the same dang reason it always was.

"Stein, stay focused," Mr. Tredway called up to him, noticing that he wasn't hearing anything he had been saying. Stein heard him, and said, "Sorry," then payed attention after that. Mr. Tredway had also been noticing that he had been acting a little bit funny lately, but he just figured it was a normal kid thing. Mr. Collins looked up at him, thinking about what his dad had said to him that morning.

Stein had planned on bringing the notebook and showing it to his dad when it was completely filled up; he figured that if he ran out of space, then there was no way something wasn't wrong. There had been things as simple as hearing faint noises or seeing shadows, to full out hallucinations like what had just happened that morning and on his way home from the academy; those were always the most troubling to him.

He went through the rest of the class being able to pay attention, then him, Spirit, and Mr. Collins went outside to train. Today they were going to work on the witch hunter again, so he wasn't exactly excited. He was, however, eager to master the skill, so he still wanted to train. They quickly got to their regular training area, and began.

"I know you guys can do this. You almost had it yesterday, you just need to make your resonance a little stronger. Focus."

"Yeah, let's do this!" Spirit seemed to be in a pretty good mood, and also seemed to have a lot of energy; this should help them resonate better. Stein started to think about what had happened, but shook it off and cleared his mind. And so they began.

They started to resonate, their souls started to connect. There was a glowing light around them, and it began to get brighter and brighter; the wind around them started to blow harder and harder. It all felt different to the both of them, and it seemed right. Soon they got their resonance to be very strong, connecting more and more each second. Before they knew it, they had it.

Spirits blade changed into the form it is when preforming witch hunter, and Spirit and Stein both got really excited.

"Good! I knew you guys would get it. You guys get closer to being ready to go on a mission every day." They continued to resonate strongly, but a little bit later they broke out of the witch hunter. Stein had a sort of confused look on his face, but Mr. Collins soon explained.

"Don't worry about that. If you keep a super skill going too long, it will eventually stop. This is just because it can't hold forever, especially when you are just starting out. You guys did very well, actually. You are picking up on this stuff quicker than anyone I have ever taught, so don't worry about it.

"Spirit, you can transform back; I think we are going to take a little break. You guys did very well." Spirit transformed back, landing right next to Stein.

"I think you guys are learning very well, there is no doubt about it. With the amount of techniques and things for in battle that you know now, I think you guys are ready to go on a mission. I will ask Mr. Tredway what he thinks about it, and hopefully get something picked out for you guys. I am eager to see how well you do against someone else."

"It's about time, I'm ready to do some fighting," Stein said this, actually seeming pretty eager as well. He really did want to fight, he honestly wanted to beat the crap out of something.

"Yeah, I agree with Stein. I'm ready to see some action!" They seemed like they were pretty pumped, it was actually kind of pleasing Mr. Collins.

"You'll get your chance, I just have to get Mr. Tredway's approval to sign you up for something." He figured he would ask him after they finished class today.

Mr. Collins just told them stories of some of the people he has faught over the years, and it actually kept them pretty entertained. He was a three star meister: he has had a LOT of experience over the years, he has defeated a very large number of people, and has some pretty interesting stories to tell. Stein loved listening, and so did Spirit. They were boys, of course they were going to like hearing this stuff.

Kami and Marie were already in the cafeteria when Stein and Spirit sat down, and of course Marie was smiling, listening to Kami talk about Spirit. Kami pirked up when she saw Spirit walk over to her.

They actually had a seating arrangement that they followed everyday; they didn't sit and plan it out or anything, it just kind of ended up working like this. Spirit sat next to Kami, and on the other side of the table Stein sat next to Marie. Ever since Marie and Kami started sitting with them, everyone completely stopped staring at them, which Stein honestly liked. It didn't creep him out, but he hated everyone paying attention to him.

"Hey, Franken! How were your lessons?"

"They actually went pretty well. We can do witch hunter now, and Mr. Collins says that he is going to try to sign us up for a mission."

"A mission? We have barely learned anything! It will be a whole year before we can do that!"

"Oh come on, it can't be that long." Stein said this, Kami responding.

"It won't be, she is just exaggerating like she always does."

"I am no,!"

"Yes, just like how you weren't exaggerating when you said that you liked Stein as a friend." Marie instantly blushed, her face quickly turning as red as a lobster. Stein just pulled out a book, trying to ignore what he had just heard. Like you already know, he doesn't feel the same way. Marie was so embarrassed, she couldn't believe she said that. Kami just gave her a smirk before turning to Spirit to talk to him again.

The rest of the break Marie just sat there, trying to contain her feelings of embarrassment, and Stein continued reading; he had bascially forgot that she even said that. He was too busy reading about the descending colon to think about that.

It was time for them to go to their next class, so they all got up and started down the hall. They got to Miss. Parson's class, glad that she was finally back.

"Hey, I am so glad I can see you all again! I have missed you all so much! And sorry I was gone so long, the academy sent me on a mission; we didn't expect it to take that long, but we ended up getting stuck on the way back. I can't believe I haven't even been able to teach you guys anything yet! We will need to get started right away."

After she said this, Marie turned to Kami and yelled at her.

"I can't believe you! Why did you say that?" She was trying her best to keep her voice down, she really didn't want Stein to hear her.

"It's not like it was that big a deal, I mean I am pretty sure he can already tell you like him by the way to treat him. You're the only person that actually shows interest in him, it would be pretty hard not to notice." Which he actually didn't notice, he was completely oblivious. He didn't have a clue how to tell if someone liked you or not, he just knew she was really nice to him. He never figured she would like him in that way.

"Yeah, but I am not entirely sure he has noticed. It just doesn't seem like he has, and I would appreciate it if you let him realize it on his own time."

"Sure, whatever you say." She was always so nosy, and that was the one thing Marie didn't like about her. They got quiet because Miss. Parson started to talk again.

"Now that we can start learning, I think I should start off by explaining exactly what this class is about. In this class, you will learn all of the different types of wavelengths. There are actually quite a few, and we will be learning a lot about them; we'll go into detail quite a bit. I figured that we could start off with one of the most important and powerful wavelengths that exist: the madness wavelength." At this point in time, Stein only knew it existed because it was on the worksheet they did at the beginning of the year; he honestly had no clue what it was. But it would definitely become familiar to him over time.

"It is caused by the source of all madness, the kishin. It is unbelievably powerful, it is amazing what it can do. These things affect many things, like weather, people, and it strengthens anything evil in this world. It has a tremendous affect on people, and I have made a worksheet with a list of some of the things a person being affected by the madness wavelengths might experience." As she finished saying this, she passed out the papers to the class.

"Madness wavelengths magnify the insanity in people's souls; everyone has at least a little insanity in their soul, some more than others. Some people will barely be affected by it at all, others will have a difficult time keeping it under control. It spreads almost like a disease, it starts off as something very minor, but it eventually takes ahold of you, no matter how much you fight against it." Next, she started to explain some of the things people experience when being affected.

"One of the most common signs of madness would probably have to be hallucinations. A hallucination is when you perceive something that isn't actually there; it isn't real, and no one else can sense it besides you. It can effect any of your five senses, and you might not even realize it's not real. You may think it's actually happening, and not even know that it's a hallucination. Something else that is a major sign of madness wavelengths is frequent nightmares. You can have them bascially every night, and they seem very real. They can be very frightening and disturbing, and you cannot do anything to stop them. They will often wake you up at night, and you have more nightmares the more you are being affected. Another sign of madness is that the person will become very delusional, it is terrible just how bad this can get. They will start to believe things that aren't real, no matter how much evidence is shown to them that it isn't. Now, I know this may sound odd, but they will usually have uncontrollable laughter. They could be laughing their head off, even if there is nothing funny, and they might not be able to stop themselves. This usually scares a lot of people that see this happen. They will also want to do very bad things, they will want to harm people, and they will want to be very destructive. That is why it is important to keep these people away from others when they are being affected, as they might end up even killing someone. The bad thing about madness is that at first, you are only affected by it sometimes, but once it completely takes over, it never stops. You can be completely lost in your own world of delusions and hallucinations and not have a single clue what is going on, and could possibly never come back to the real world. And if you are around other people, you can end up causing a lot of harm to them. You do things you would not regularly do, and you basically have no conscience. We ran out of time, so I will go over this more tomorrow. See you guys later!"

As she finished, Stein realized something. This is what has been going on lately, this is it! The weird things he has been seeing, all of the nightmares, the random anger, the outburst he had yesterday; it all makes sense. The thing is, how did his father not know? He had been going to the academy for many years, he was to the best meister to ever graduate, he was very intelligent, wouldn't he know what they were?

Then he thought of something. "Didn't she say it spreads until it completely takes over? How long will it be for me? What's going to happen? I have been having a lot of nightmares lately.. I have been seeing a lot more things too.. is it going to take control of me soon? I need to see my dad about this.. I don't understand why he didn't see this."

At the end of class, Miss. Parson called Stein and Spirit over to her desk.

"Hey! I heard you guys are doing really well. You're even taking special lessons, that's awesome!"

"Yeah, I think that special lesson will really help us learn at our own pace." Stein said this, Spirit nodded in agreement.

"Well, good luck with everything!" Both Stein and Spirit said thank you, then left to go to their next class.

He went through the rest of the day, and everything was actually going pretty well. Spirit and Kami weren't too annoying, and Marie's cheerful attitude didn't seem all that bad for once. He was glad about this, it didn't seem to happen to often lately. This made the day go by really fast, and he was actually in a good mood; that's also somehing that doesn't happen often. Before he knew it, it was time to leave, and they were on there way out of the academy.

They were walking down the road, and Mr. Collins was standing by the academy, keeping an eye on him like his father asked him to. He assumed everything was going well by the way things looked, and figured he could handle going home on his own, so he just went back inside.

Stein and Marie reached the point where they go separate ways, so they said goodbye to each other.

"See you tomorrow, Franken!"

"Goodbye, Marie." He was actually smiling a little bit, so this made Marie beyond thrilled. She started skipping down the road, even more cheerfully than she usually did. Stein just shook his head, almost laughing to himself as he kept going down his road. She may be clingy, but she was pleasant to be around. She always had a way of cheering people up, it was nice.

Stein was at the end of the road when he realized just how warm it was compared to this morning. The sun was starting to make his head feel hot, but luckily he had very light hair, so the sun wasn't as attracted to it.

He walked into his house and set his stuff in his room, then used his soul perception to see where his dad was. He was in his lab, doing yet again another dissection. Stein hadn't watched is father do one in a really long time, and he decided that he wanted to today. He figured maybe he could ask him about the madness wavelength when he was done.

He walked back the hallway leading to his father's lab, and heard a faint noise coming from inside, but he still knocked anyway. Very shortly after, the noise stopped and his dad told him to come in.

He walked in, seeing his dad wearing the usual latex gloves, holding a shiny and very sharp scalpel in his hand, and he turned to his son to ask him something.

"What it is you are wanting, Franken?"

"I was wondering, since I haven't in a while, could I watch you do another dissection?" Both him and his father knew that he was becoming more and more interested in the anatomy of different living organisms, and his father figured he would ask this sooner or later.

"Sure, I don't see why not. But I am going to be doing another one later after dinner, and I suggest you observe that one. It will be far more interesting, and that way you will be able to watch the entire thing." He had walked in when his dad was already halfway done, so he was right about that.

"Okay, can you come get me when you are ready?"

"Yep, I sure can."

"Thank you." After he said that, he walked out and went into his room to read. He was actually kind of excited about getting to watch, he hadn't done it in so long. He could barely concentrate on what he was reading, and was relieved when his mom said it was time for dinner.

They all went out and ate, and the entire time he thought about what it could be that his dad was going to dissect. He said it was going to be interesting, so this must be pretty good. His dad started to try to think of the best thing possible, and then he got the idea. He had a slight smirk on his face, and continued to eat.

When they finished, Stein went back into his room to wait for his dad to come get him. His dad went into his lab, keeping his grin hidden until he shut the door. Man did he love dissecting stuff. He started to get everything ready next.

He started to prepare for the dissection, one that Stein would surely never forget. He made sure that the table was in it's proper place, then fully sterilized it. He moved the tray that contained his tools to it's original spot next to the table after cleaning them.

He had to clean them all off since he hadn't bothered to when he finished with his last subject. Once he thoroughly cleaned off and polished all of his tools, making sure the scalpel was extra shiney, he picked it up and held it up the light, soaking in the joy of the way the light glistened off it. He went and sharpened it; it was actually the sharpest it had been for years, and he was pleased with that. He had to make sure the incisions were as clean and smooth as possible, as this was going to be a very important dissection. Little Franken would learn a lot from this one, more than he would think.

He set it back down in it's proper place, walking over to the box in his office that contained latex gloves. He always made sure that he had a very large supply of them, as he is constantly in need of them. He put the gloves on, loving the way it feels when he pulls on the bottom of the glove and releases it, causing it to smack his hand, creating that snapping noise that has become very familiar to him over the years.

Throughout the entire process of preparation, he had a very large grin spread across his face. He really wanted to laugh, but he tried his best to contain it. A few giggles slipped out here and there, but he did his best. He grabbed onto the table, attempting to keep the hysterical laughter in one last time before going to get Stein; yet again, a couple giggles managed to come out.

He straightened his back so he was standing up all the way as he let go of the table. Next he forced the grin off his face, his facial expressions returning back to their usual bored appearance. He walked over to a cabinet and grabbed the key component to him being able to do this dissection, a final smirk appearing on his face. He could feel the madness flaming up inside him, but he calmed himself down some before exiting his lab.

He went into the kitchen and got his son a drink, then walked into the dining room and sat it down on the table. He took out the vial he had grabbed from his lab, and added it's contents into the drink, mixing it in completely.

He went out of the dining room, across the living room, then through the hallway that lead to Stein's room. He got up to the door, and knocked on it the same firm way he always did. Stein instantly knew what he was there for, so he closed his book and went to the door. He unlocked it, and opened it to see his dad standing there.

"Hey, Franken. Come with me." He said this with a slight smile, and he seemed actually happy. That never happened; it appeared to be regular happiness to everyone else, but it wasn't. It was a sadistic kind of joy. He couldn't stop picturing everything he was going to do, it was crowding his thoughts.

Stein followed him down the hall, and then into the dining room once crossing the living room. He was kind of confused when he got there, but he just sat in the chair his dad pointed to without questioning him.

"Drink this, I got it for you." Stein did so, not even thinking of a reason as to why he would have done that.

"Listen, this dissection will be, by far, the most interesting one you have witnessed. And I must say, it will be the most up close one as well. You are going to learn a lot from this; it will be pertaining to the topic you have been reading about lately." Stein nodded his head, basically as a way of showing that he was hearing and comprehending everything his dad was saying, while he continued to drink what his dad had prepared for him.

"I am actually kind of glad that you want to see another dissection. You're getting closer to the age that I will allow you to start preforming them yourself, so perhaps it's good for you to become familiar with the process." As his father said this last part, it started to become harder for him to keep his eyes open.

Everything started to become foggy, everything his dad was saying started to seem quieter. He started yawning, and sat back in his chair. His muscles started to relax, and his mind started to slow down. Before he knew it he was out like a light. He his head tipped down as he dropped the glass on the floor. Lucky for his dad, it didn't break. Turns out, the thing his dad had put in his drink was a tranquilizer.

His father got up from the chair he was sitting in and picked up the glass, sitting it on the table as he stood back up. Next he picked up his son, holding him so that he was still in a laying position. He was actually kind of light, he rested easily on his father's two hands.

He went back the hallway that led to his lab, and bumped the door open with his hip, making sure he avoided hitting Stein's feet off the wall. Next he walked over to the table, and sat his son down on it gently. He strapped his wrists and ankles down, as he is sure to freak out when he wakes up, and there is no way he would stay down after he began.

His dad then walked out of the room, he went to wash the glass that contained the drink earlier. He needed something to do until his son woke up, so why not do something somewhat productive? He also didn't want his wife to end up drinking it when she got home later at night. It might be funny, but he still didn't want her to. She would probably get mad at him for leaving that kind of stuff around the house.

Stein woke up about 20 minutes later, and it was pitch black in his father's lab. He heard footsteps going down the hallway, but since he was still a little foggy, he wasn't sure where he was or who was coming, and the footsteps sounded slightly muffled. As his father got closer and closer, the sound became clearer and clearer. He tried to move, but realized something was keeping down; he didn't know what. When he felt the cold metal of the table, he realized where he was, and whose footsteps those were.

He started moving frantically, but stopped as soon as he realized the man was standing right next to him.

The bright overhead lights turned on, blinding him for a moment. When his eyes started to adjust, he saw his father standing over him, wearing latex gloves and a surgical mask; that was the only thing that hid the grin that was painted across his face. He watched his son, who has now beginning to sweat.

Stein realized exactly what was going on, and fear began welling up inside him. He started to shake, sweat, and he wanted to scream. But he was scared to the point that he couldn't, nothing would come out.

His dad reached down, and took his son's shirt off, exposing his pale skin. He then grabbed the scalpel, and held it up to the light once again. The light reflected off the sharp blade, bouncing off his dad's glasses. His father absolutely loved how shiny and mirror-like the knife was, and let out a slight giggle; one that he was trying so hard to keep in.

Whenever his son would watch him do dissections, he always made sure to keep himself under control. He did struggle, but he managed. If he knew he wasn't going to be able to keep it in any longer, he always sent his son to his room. He did it for his safety. His little, young son didn't need to see that. And now, one of his main motivations to stay calm was that he didn't want his madness to start affecting Stein. He knew he would be able to feel it in his soul, and he didn't want that.

He did care about his son, he just didn't show it very often. He lacked emotion to a very great extent, so that was part of the reason. Stein's dad's father didn't show it either, so he really didn't know he had to. He didn't find it to be important, and he was always so involved in his experiments that it never crossed his mind. But the one area he did show, was that he wanted to keep him safe.

He started to put the scalpel down towards Stein, and this made him sweat even more, shake beyond belief, and he let out a slight scream. He tried to move away from his dad, but it was to no avail; he was stuck right where has on the table. In his dad's case, thank Death for restraints.

"Oh! I forgot one thing." His dad realized he forgot to make marks on Stein for where he would make the incisions. Like I said before, he wanted to do this as well as possible. He would use anesthesia, but then he wouldn't learn a single thing from it.

He pulled out his marker, and made a large line going from his upper torso, all the way down to his lower abdomen.

"There, now the fun can start!" Stein swallowed, fearing the pain that was about to come.

His dad brought down the blade, putting slight pressure on his skin. Then he started to pull the knife down the line.

Stein started to scream, it was actually very loud. He had never felt pain like this before; it was unbelievable, excrutiating. It was stinging, the feeling of his skin separating at the blade made him scream louder.

His dad used the screaming to his advantage, as it helped keep his laughter hidden from his son. The louder Stein screamed, the louder he laughed.

Stein squeezed his eyes shut and clentched his fists against the pain, allowing more screams to come out of him. At this point, the entire middle part of his body was covered in blood. It was sticky, a deep red, now oozing onto the table. His dad loved it all; it was sick, but he loved it.

Stein opened his eyes for a second, now he could feel that his dad was at the lower part of his abdomen, trying to cut in the proper place. He was having a little trouble, both because Stein wouldn't stop jerking around, and also because his hands wouldn't stay still from the laughter. Stein could actually hear it a little bit.

When he looked down at what his father was doing, still clenthing his fists, he saw his organs. Tears started to roll down his face, for two reasons. The predominant one was the pain, he wanted nothing else but for it to be over. There is no way he could describe this. The other reason was that he realized something, something he had learned at school that day. He knew why his dad was laughing, he started to see the grin through his mask. He felt the madness wavelengths.

This scared him because he knew how people being affected by the madness were dangerous. He knew that those people could get completely lost in the madness; had he lost control? He knew that once a person went completely insane, they could even end up killing a person. He knew how they needed to be kept away from everyone else. What was he going to do to him?

The tears started to come more and more; his screaming continued, just as the laughter did.

His father finished the long incision down his body, so the screaming died down slighty, but the tears were still coming out. He then picked up a probe, and started to point to all of the organs.

"Look... Franken," He said this, giggles pouring out between each word, "these are your organs. This is what makes up the human body." He had a little more control now, as he was able to stop the laughter.

"See, this is the stomach, the liver, the gall blader, the spleen, pancreas, small intestines. There's the ascending, transverse, and descending colon; all of which make up the large intestines. That's the vermiform appendix. See, this is the human body; more specifically, your's." Stein looked, and started making mental notes of where it all was, absorbing everything he was capable of while in this amount of pain. Remember, this kid was still laying on a table of blood, with the amount of blood adding up, his body still opened up.

"I told you this would be your most up close dissection yet." He said this, trying desparately hard to keep the laughter in, and he actually succeeded thit time. Tears started to run down Stein's face again, and he closed his eyes, turning his head away from his father.

The older of the two the reached down, and started to move his hand around inside his son. He started to touch the organs, making sure he didn't punture any of them. Stein could feel every bit of this, and it was the weirdest, most painful thing he has ever felt. A giggle let out of Stein this time.

His dad realized that the madness was starting to get to him, so he figured he would have to finish up soon. He wanted to make sure that he got to see enough, but he couldn't wait too long.

The main reason why he was keeping himself under control was, like Stein had learned, he could get completely engulfed in the madness and end up killing him. It was a very good motivation for him to not rip out each one of his organs with his bare hands, one at a time.

He dissected his son because he did want him be able to learn this on a very personal level, that was true. And the way the madness had been increasing lately has made him been craving getting to cut open a person. He had to make sure he didn't lose it; the last time he dissected a person he didn't have the same motivation, so it didn't end well. Unfortunately for the last person, they didn't walk out of that lab.. they were carried; they never did walk again.

Stein became fascinated, he wanted to feel around for himself. But, obviously, he couldn't. More and more giggles started to pour out of him, just as one came out of his dad. His dad quickly silenced himself and knew that he had to finish up. Stein was actually starting to get kind of loud, and more and more blood still came out onto the table. Everything turned red around him, everything seemed to be spinning, then went black as he became silent. He had fainted from the pain.

His father went over to one of his cabinets and opened it, not minding that he was getting blood on everything he touched. He pulled out some anesthetics; he didn't want his son to wake up when he was stitching his skin together. He walked back over, and injected the chemicals into him.

He got to work. He cleaned out everything, then started to pull the thread through his skin. Some people would vomit from the way this felt, but it was natural to him. Soon, he had finished closing the incisions, and his organs were no longer exposed. He then washed off his son, after having cleaned all of the blood off the table.

He set him back down, not restraining him this time. All of his tools were thoroughly cleaned; when I say thorough, I mean it. His dad was quite good at cleaning stuff up at this point. He then changed into different clothes, and brought the bloody ones downstairs. He stayed in the basement for a little bit, and just thought.

Stein started to wake up, then realized that the overhead light was still on. He shot up from the table, fear rushing through him. He ran out of his fathers lab and into his room, sprinting as fast as he could. He slammed the door shut, double checking that he locked it.

He sat down on his bed, grabbing his pillow and pulling it up to cover his stitched chest. He started to sob; he couldn't believe this had happened. His crying started to become louder, his breathing staggered. He clutched the pillow, holding onto it forcefully.

His surrounding changed, he looked up gasping. The memories of his dad cutting him open started to play in front of his eyes, causing him to cry more. A scream tore from his throat as he fell over in his bed, the memories still playing, like a film. He could even start to feel the blade slicing through him again, as if it was actually happening.

His screams turned into hysterical laughter, as he was lost in the previous memories of the dissection.

**Do you see what I was saying now? If not, what the heck? And anyway, I am THINKING this next chapter will be the last one before they are teenagers, but I am not sure. Hehe, got lots of ideas! This should go fairly fast.**


	6. The Midgets' First Mission

**This one is not too short, and not obnoxiously long either. I was going to make it longer, but I thought it would just be easier to do it this way. This next chapter is going to be a lot of what Spirit does at Stein's house.. have some things planned already. And I have had this one section already written for a point later on in chapter 7, when I was halfway through 6. Anyway, I really like this one. I must say, minus Stein's dad this had to be the most madness free chapter yet. This was good for Stein.. and poor Marie. Anyway, read it!**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 6 The "Midgets'" First Mission

Ever since his father's dissection, Stein had been... different, almost absent minded. Any emotion he had before, gone. He was cold, distant from everyone. He hated people; sure he did before, but it was worse now. Marie hated it, all the changes in him; it was starting to worry her. She thought she was starting to get him to warm up a bit, but nope. He was actually making progress with socializing, and he just took a huge step back.

He was more into science. Those were his thoughts, if he even knew what he was thinking. Since the day of the event, he had been craving dissecting; he thought this was weird though. He figured he would have been scared of them and try to avoid it at all costs, but he was actually being drawn into them. But since his dad had said he had to wait until he got older before he could start dissecting, he had to do it secretly.

He was actually starting to be outside a lot more due to this, but I mean, how else is he going to get the animals? He had been stealing the tools from his father, and did it well enough that he never got caught, which is very good considering how if father is.

He had been more out of it as well, had begun hallucinating more often. It was starting to get a little harder for him to tell what was real and what wasn't. Before there was always some way to tell that he was seeing stuff, but now he was never sure. Sometimes he would be sitting in class, and all of the sudden random things would appear around him, and half the time they wouldn't go away for a while. He would even end up seeing people and start trying to talk to them, obviously earning some weird looks.

He was actually getting pretty good at hiding the fact that he wasn't in reality all of the time. Some people would get suspicious as to why he was acting weird, but he was able to convince them. Part of this was because when he could tell it wasn't real, he could basically just ignore it. The hardest person to hide it from was always Mr. Collins.

Stein still didn't know that his father had went and told his teacher about him feeling madness wavelengths on the day of the dissection; lately he has been closer to finding out, since it's getting harder for Mr. Collins to not make it obvious. He was running out of excuses to tell the kid, but he was managing just well enough.

Lucky for Stein, he was still able to train. Over the week, he learned and perfected new techniques, and had gotten a lot better at using soul force. When training, he did have some trouble keeping it together. Sometimes he would start to see stuff, and his soul would start to feel a little different, but he would keep it under control as best as he could; most times, they wouldn't actually find out.

He had also begun to have more nightmares, and they were becoming more disturbing as well; often times, they were about his father and dissections.

He and his father weren't around each other much anymore, and his mother was part of the reason. She had found out the night it happened.

When Stein finally stopped hallucinating about the dissection from being so exhausted, he fell asleep. Not shortly after, his mother got home when he was having a nightmare. Stein started screaming at an unbelievable level, and his mother of course heard. She somehow managed to get the door open, Death knows how, and came in. Since he still didn't have a shirt on, she saw the fresh, new scar on his body.

She automatically knew why it was there, so after waking Stein from his nightmare, she tried to comfort him a little bit. She got him to calm down a little, and she stormed out of the room, yelling at his father once she reached his lab.

"Franken! How could you do that? He is your son! He is going to be terrified of you, don't you have any control?! I swear, I can't trust you with him anymore. You know what could have happened! What would you have done if you would have killed him? What the hell is wrong with you?!" Right after she finished, she ran out, slamming the door very loudly behind her. She got to her room, also slamming that door, and threw herself onto her bed.

She started to cry, she was terrified. She kept thinking of the possibility that her son could have died; that he could be dead right now if her husband would have lost all control. Stein could hear it all. The yelling, the slamming; he couldn't hear the crying, but he could tell by her soul.

Then Stein started to cry again, absolutely terrified for the same reason his mother was.

Ever since that night, his mother hasn't let his father get near him; only on very rare occasions. She has barely talked to her husband, she would never forgive him for that. He knew the risks that came with doing that, yet he still went ahead and cut his son open, all while he was fully conscious.

His father hardly ever came out of his lab now. He hardly stops dissecting; most of the time, there is no order to it. He just totally makes a mess, not containing himself one bit. He was very mad at himself, he regretted what he had done. Like I said, he actually does care a lot about his safety.

Now that Stein had begun to hallucinate a little less, and seemed more like himself, he had begun training better as well. They knew enough that Mr. Tredway had a mission picked out for them. They were going to Austria to collect the soul of a man named The Beholder, and he sure did look menacing.

He wore all black, spikes coming out all over him. His teeth also looked like very sharp spikes as well. He was fairly tall, muscular, and was very close to becoming a kishin. He was often found in the alleys of Austria, trying to find a soul to take.

Stein and Spirit were on their way there, discussing what they needed to do. Mr. Collins came along, but stayed off in the distance, making it seem as if he wasn't there. Mr. Tredway requested that he go with them to make sure they didn't get into any trouble; this is their first mission, so something could go wrong. Remember, this is basically a test run to see how they do in battle.

The man they were going after was very famous for beheading people, and he did this very successfully. His one hand actually transformed into a dagger kind of blade. So he was completely covered in spikes head to toe, had a dagger hand, was very tall and strong, and was known for cutting people's heads off; this should be fun.

Stein would have to watch out, as one swipe could end up killing him. And in order for him to use soul force, he will have to get up pretty close to him, and actually touch him. He would have to make sure he didn't hit one of the spikes, and he would also have to watch out for his head, as the closer you are, the greater chance you have of losing it. Not your mind, but your actual head.

When Marie heard who they were going up against, she just about started balling. She didn't at the academy, but she did, however, cry herself to sleep when she got home. She really loved that kid. Today since they were on their way to Austria, she couldn't pay attention at all. She can't stop worrying, about both Stein and Spirit, but mainly the gray-haired boy.

Kami was also very upset when she found out, but she didn't react nearly as much. Her eyes did start to water up when she hugged Spirit goodbye and wished him good luck, telling him that she wouldn't stop worrying until he got back. Marie wished she could hug Stein and never let go of him, but we all know that wouldn't happen, especially not now.

Lucky for Stein, the madness seemed to be at the lowest it had been in a while. Looks like things might actually go pretty well. He and Spirit are just going to have to be able to stay focused when fighting. Mr. Collins felt kind of at ease when he felt Stein's soul; it appeared to be relatively calm.

They actually enjoyed the way there, it was cool to get to see how different everything was from Death City. They were on a mission so they couldn't really stop and do anything, but at least they could see the place on the way there. Spirit protested in an effort to get Mr. Collins to take them somewhere, but soon gave up when he started to say that he would tell Kami about the way he talks to other girls.

See, Spirit has a very large need for girls, so when he talks to them, he usually ends up flirting. Although he had been putting all of his free energy into talking to Kami, he still ended up flirting with a lot of other girls. But he can't help it, he is just naturally like that; half the time he doesn't even try to sweet talk them, it just ends up that way. It was like a special skill that he had, some guys would probably call him gifted.

They were getting close to where the guy was; Mr. Collins could feel his soul, and Stein was starting to be able to. See, at this point Stein was getting fairly good at sensing people's souls. He couldn't quite tell characteristics, but he could see the size and shape of them, and one of the most basic characteristics; whether the person had evil in their soul. Everyone has at least a little bit of that, but if a person has even slightly a little more than usual, he can tell. This is the one characteristic he can do, and frankly, is quite good at it.

They were in an alley now, which is where The Beholder is usually spotted. They knew they would have to fight soon, so Spirit transformed. Stein caught him perfectly, like always, and prepared himself.

Mr. Collins still stood back in the distance, and observed their souls the entire time. He could tell the man was coming; Stein's soul was still calm, even though he was about to battle him; and Spirit's, on the other hand, showed that he was starting to get a little scared. But when going up against a man with a reputation like this guy's, you almost can't help but get scared at least a little bit.

They could see his shadow coming from around the bend; it looked very long and morphed, moving forward more and more until he finally became visible. Spirit started to shake a little bit, but quickly shook it off and was ready to fight. Stein remained calm the whole time, pleasing Mr. Collins.

The man was very large, just like they had heard. He was almost twice the height of Stein, but this didn't intimidate him one bit. The spikes were very long, at least a foot or two, and looked like they could do some real damage if they were to puncture through your skin. And when he grinned, his teeth made it look much more menacing. His eyes had an evil glint to them, like he craved violence, blood, and terror in others.

Stein gripped onto the staff of the scythe, standing his ground, showing no fear; this made The Beholder smirk.

"So that dumb academy sent the midgets after me, huh?" This made Stein widen his eyes to a cold glare. "And what the hell are you doing just standing there, Anthony?" As you have probably already guessed, that is Mr. Collins' first name. He is a very well-known meister, so it isn't very surprising that he knew his name.

"This is their fight, not mine." He said this, pointing to the weapon and meister pair.

"This should be taken care of very quickly then." He gave one final grin, then started charging at Stein. He swung the dagger at him, probably hoping to decapitate him. Stein brought up Spirit at the perfect time, blocking the attack.

Stein quickly moved the scythe, and swung it at the man's head. The Beholder ducked down, swiping at Stein's feet as he got lower. He jumped away from him, trying to think of a way he could use soul force; this was guaranteed to make it easier for Stein to slice into him with Spirit.

Before Stein knew it, The Beholder lunged at him again, trying to shove the dagger into his abdomen. This man could move, that was for sure.

"I'm not going to let you get me that easily, I seriously don't need another scar." As Stein said this, Spirit thought, "Another?" to himself. Stein sidestepped him, swinging at the man's back, trying to get him before he was fully turned around again. The Beholder just moved to the side, and ran at Stein. He swung again, and Stein just barely moved out of the way this time; the blade cut his arm slightly, a few drops of blood falling to the ground.

He ignored the cut, but the fact that he almost got him made him all the more determined to defeat him. He would not lose, and especially not during his first fight; he was better than that.

Stein ran and jumped at the man, making sure he was high enough in the air that The Beholder would have to aim high to get him, which happened just like Stein hoped it would. Stein used Spirit to block the dagger once again. He landed on the ground, still blocking the man's knife with his partner. Next, he shoved his fist into the man's abdomen, successfully avoiding the spikes that covered his body, and shot his soul wavelength into him.

From all of the training he had been doing, he had gotten it to be pretty powerful. The Beholder flew back and hit the wall of the alley, blood coming out of his mouth as he did so. Stein realized something. He could start to feel the man's soul, he could almost start to match his up with it. He remembered how when he hit Mr. Collins, their wavelengths were different so it caused more pain. He thought he could try something; experiment a bit.

The man fell to the ground, slowly getting up as he wiped his mouth.

"You'll have to do a lot more than that to kill me."

"Oh yeah? I think I'll have to take you up on that offer," Stein said this with a smirk on his face, remembering his idea. He ran towards the man as fast as he could, catching him slightly off guard at just how fast he was really going. He then hit the man in the stomach once more, sending him into the wall again. This time he was a lot closer to the wall, so he actually made it cave in a little bit when he hit it.

As Stein hit the man, he tried his best to feel his soul. He then tried changing his be the opposite, thus making the soul force attack hurt much more. It worked. This made the man fall to the ground again, but this timed he stayed down. Stein walked over to him so he was standing right above him, and the man looked up at him.

"Midget."

Stein clenched his teeth, and swiftly moved Spirit's blade across the man's throat, hard enough to cut pretty deep. For the final attack, Stein lifted the scythe in the air, his eyes now having a very menacing look to them, and brought it down very hard, piercing through the man's chest; more specifically, his heart. He dragged the blade down, all the way to the middle of his abdomen. As you can imagine, this completely tore his heart, causing blood to gush out. He took it out, quickly moving the scythe to his side, the blood dripping completely off as he did so.

He made his face totally blank and emotionless once again, then turned around and walked to his teacher.

"Very nicely done, Stein. At first I thought I was going to have to help out a bit, but then you handled it very well. I'm impressed." Mr. Collins was smiling, enjoying how well he had performed. The blade of the scythe changed, now showing Spirit through it.

"Holy crap, Stein! That was awesome!" Stein hardly seemed to notice what they were saying at all, it had no effect on him.

"We have only been training for the last month. And I wasn't going to let that idiot beat me, it all would have been a waste of time then."

"Yeah, I suppose it would have," Mr. Collins said in agreement, "but this couldn't have gone any better."

"Yes, I could have avoided getting my arm cut."

"Oh Stein, stop being so hard on yourself. You did very well, especially since this was your first mission. It didn't take you long at all to defeat him."

"Yeah Stein, just relax for once."

"Maybe when we don't have any more close calls."

"We only had like one or two!"

"That's one or two too many."

"Come on, you did very well. Let's just leave it at that." Mr. Collins didn't want them to start arguing, so he decided to intervene.

"I'm good with that." By the way Spirit sounded, he didn't exactly want to argue either.

"Fine, but we can still improve."

"Well of course, there's always room for improvement. But it won't happen all at once, it will take time. Don't worry, you have made a lot of progress for it only being a month." Spirit transformed into his human form, then nodded his head.

Stein didn't respond, as he was thinking about something; it was about how he had changed his wavelength to make his soul force attack hurt even more. His idea had worked, his theory was right, and he was glad. He figured he could start working on this during battles. He could also just try changing his wavelength to fit with or go against other people's, basically at any time. He knew he could do something with this, and he was actually right.

"Well, now that you guys have completed your goal, we can head back to the academy. I think Mr. Tredway will be very pleased when he hears how it went. To think, the other students aren't even anywhere close to being able to do this. I seriously doubt they have started on any super skills."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool that we have learned this much." Spirit always seemed enthusiastic about fighting and training, and has a lot more lately. Since they have been getting a lot better, he has started to enjoy his classes more as well.

"It really is. Hey, Stein, are you going to tell your dad how it went?" Right when he said this, Stein got very tense. "What do you think he would say about it? He seems fairly interested in how your training goes."

"I don't know." Stein snapped back; he thought about how he wasn't going to tell him, he wasn't even allowed to be around him anymore. His mother appeared to be a little more lenient about it lately, but he personally just didn't want to see him anyway.

"Hmm.. you'll just have to see." Mr. Collins always tried to ignore Stein's bad mood. He never gets mad, so he can deal with him pretty well.

"I'm not going to tell him."

"Why not?" Mr. Collins seemed confused, he thought Stein and his dad actually talked about that kind of stuff. By the way he and his father talked, it seemed like he kept him up to date.

"Yeah, why not? We did awesome, he would want to know."

"I don't want to talk to him, or be near him for that matter." He was being really stubborn. They would never understand why this was, I mean they've never had their dads drug them, cut them open, and touch their organs, laughing throughout the entire process of it; all of the laughter being from their pain.

"Why? He's your father, you have to at least be around him," Spirit responded, having a tone to his voice that made it sound like he was saying something obvious, which in all honestly, he was.

"I would honestly rather not talk about it."

"Oh, okay." Spirit didn't get why Stein shot him down so quickly like that. Oh well, he would have to find out eventually, especially if they were going to be partners for as long as they were. By the time they are done being partners, they will know each other practically like they know themselves.

Mr. Collins noticed how he had been weird lately, then saw the way he reacted the minute he mentioned his father... could something had happened? It did make sense; he started acting strange the day after his father came to his house. Could that be any kind of connection? It wasn't exactly a connection, but something did happen.

Both Spirit and Mr. Collins stood there for a minute, staring at Stein; they didn't even know they were staring. Stein quickly noticed, and tried to change the subject.

"Can we go?"

"Oh! yes, I almost forgot we were leaving."

"You did forget." You would have expected this to come out of Stein, I am sure you all assumed that. But no, it was actually Spirit. At times he could be smart with his teacher, so it wasn't really all that surprising.

They started walking down the streets, and the meisters felt something; a very powerful, strong soul. They followed where it led to, and it was actually not that far up the road. When they got there, they saw a woman standing with a girl. The girl appeared to be about the same age as Stein and Spirit, and the woman the same as Mr. Collins.

Mr. Collins knew what kind of soul it was, but Stein didn't since he had never felt one before; it was a witch. Both of them actually were. They both looked like each other, but their outfits were slightly different. Mr. Collins noticed that the older of the two was a very well know witch, one of the most powerful ones to ever live.

"Guys, stay calm. They don't seem to be causing any trouble and I definitely don't want to cause any trouble, so we are just going to let them go by. Just stay by me in case they try to attack." He said this to them, practically whispering. Stein and Spirit just got slightly closer behind, and they continued to walk by the two witches.

The thing about them was, they seemed to have a general theme about them. It was snakes. As they went by, the older one narrowed her snake-like eyes, holding onto the younger one. Lucky for the guys, they went by without attacking. The witches just glared the entire time, until they were no longer visible.

"That witch is a very famous one, she is actually one of the most powerful ones to ever live. That is why we are very lucky that they didn't try to hurt any of us, especially one of you two. If she were to try anything, you guys probably wouldn't stand a chance. She is far too powerful for new one star meisters. The little one is her daughter, her name is Medusa. It surprises me how little power she has. You would figure with a mother like her's, she would have a lot of magic at this point. By this age, she should have her magic at least somewhat developed; I doubt she will ever end up being even half as good as her mother. I also seriously doubt she will ever be of any trouble either, we shouldn't have to worry."

He was completely wrong about that last statement. What Mr. Collins didn't know was that she would grow up to be an extremely powerful witch, the one that revives the kishin, Asura. She will almost completely take over the world.

What Stein didn't know was that he would end up fighting against her underneath the academy. That he would kill her, but later find out she is still alive. She will be the person to destroy him, to make him give in to the madness. He also didn't know that he would end up joining her.

There really isn't much for Spirit, but later he will joke around about her bloomers. He would have a daughter, and she will be a very talented meister, just like her mother. She will be the one to end Medusa, once and for all.

While they were on their way home, Marie and Kami were still worrying.

"Ugh! I can't stop thinking about them!" This was honestly the most distressed Marie had sounded in a while. Lately she has seemed a little upset due to Stein's recent drawn back behavior, but not like this.

"I know! I haven't been able to pay attention in any of my classes. I knew they would have to go some day, and I really didn't expect myself to worry this much. They have a teacher going with them for Death's sake, they should be fine... but I still can't help but worry."

"They can still get hurt, even if there is a teacher with them. That guy is known for beheading people; I don't really think Mr. Collins is going to be able to help in time if something does happen. I want them to come back." As Marie said this, she put her head down on the desk she was sitting at, wishing for nothing more than to see Stein again. Wow did they get worked up over this.

They were closer to being home now, and it had been a while since they had seen the witches; it was about 30 minutes ago. There had been a fairly long silence, not a single word having been spoken. A thought came to Spirit, and he broke the silence.

"Hey! Stein," Spirit said this in a way that made it pretty obvious that he was trying to get his attention.

"Hm?" Stein acknowledged his partner, slightly raising his eyebrow as he looked over.

"I forgot to mention this earlier, but my parents aren't going to be home tonight. Would it be cool if I crashed at your place for the night? I promise, I won't be annoying."

"Uh, sure. I don't see why not; my mom certainly won't mind. She seems to think I need to socialize, so this should please her." Stein didn't have to worry about his father, he knew he would be in his lab the whole time. He knew he would just dissect stuff, so he wouldn't leave that room for anything.

"Awesome! And like you said before, we need to practice outside of school sometime. Maybe we could do that then. I mean, we will be together, it will work out perfectly."

"Yeah, we can do that. I definitely don't mind practicing." Mr. Collins had something to say.

"Well, if you guys are going to practice, there is something specific I want you to work on."

"What is it?" Stein said this, not breaking from his regular bland tone.

"I want you guys to try and move faster. Stein, you were complaining about having too many close calls, right? Well, if you can move faster, this should help reduce that a lot."

"Okay, and how do we do that?"

"Yeah, is there even anything I could do?"

"Yes, Spirit, there actually is. Stein, you could build up your endurance. While doing this, it will make you be able to go fast longer, and will actually help you go faster in general. Spirit, I want you to do this with him." Spirit had a kind of confused look on his face.

"I know you won't exactly be moving, but there are a few reasons why I want you to do this with him. If something were to happen and you would have to run away, you wouldn't be able to make it very far, and you could end up getting hurt because of this. Another reason is it will help build your endurance, just like I said for Stein. This is also important to you because you actually can get tired in weapon form, which you have already experienced I am sure. You need to keep your strength up, especially when resonating. The stronger the both of you are, the better you will fight."

This actually did make a lot of sense to them, and as for Spirit, he would have a lot of work to do to even be close to having the same endurance Stein currently has. He never really had to do much running, so he wasn't used to it. Stein, on the other hand, does: he frequently runs to school, he runs away from hallucinations that scare the living crap out of him, and he also had to run out of his father's lab pretty fast.

"Okay, I think we can do that." Spirit said this, not thinking of how tired he was actually going to be. You see, Stein likes to train hard, so you can just imagine how much running they will do. Spirit is lazy, and doesn't like to exercise much; this isn't going to be fun for him.

"Stein, I need you to do some extra things as well."

"I'll do anything to improve."

"I am very glad to hear that, I love your attitude towards training. I need you to build more muscle, if you can, lift weights or do something that will help you gain muscle. I think this should help a lot; it might make your soul force attack hurt more if you can hit harder. I also want you to work on soul force, see if you can do anything to make it any more powerful. It is already extremely powerful, especially considering you have only know of its existence for a month; I can't wait to see how well you can use it in a few years."

"Alright, I can do all of those things. I want to be able to use soul force as well as I possibly can. I think there may be a few things I can try to be able to use it better to my advantage."

"Oh, yeah? You have some ideas?" Mr. Collins always loved talking to him; Stein was actually extremely mature for his age, and was a very smart kid.

"Yes. I noticed the first time I used soul force on The Beholder, I could almost start to feel his soul; it seemed almost like I could connect with it. Then I remembered that since our souls are different, when I used soul force on you, it caused you more pain... and since I wasn't used to it yet, it actually hurt me a bit as well." Mr. Collins remembered how much it hurt when he hit him, and how he ran off afterwards.

"What about it?"

"Well, I thought just maybe I could change my soul, making it be the opposite; that would make it much more painful to him. It actually worked like I had thought. Maybe I could practice changing my soul accordingly to other people, and use that to my advantage."

"You actually might be onto something... work on that and see how it goes. I think that will actually work very well. I have never seen anyone do that before, but now that you mentioned it, that sounds like it would really help when fighting an enemy. If you can get that to work, maybe you could try and see what happens when you match your soul up to theirs, rather than making it the opposite; just an idea."

"You are correct, I will have to try that as well."

"Stein, I swear you're a genius. Leave it to you to be the one to figure that out."

"He is smart, that's for sure." Stein didn't respond, just simply kept looking straight ahead and kept on walking. This didn't really surprise them, though. They shrugged to each other, and continued on their way home.

* * *

Stein's father was in his lab, standing next to the table he always used for dissections. He was resting his head on the chest of a cat that currently laid on that table; that was the first time he had stepped outside of his lab in a few days, and it was to get the neighbor's cat. He was running out of things to dissect, and his son was obviously off limits.

His wife said she would call the police and have him taken away if he would try to do that to her or her son (again in his case), so he decided it was best not to; he wouldn't be able to dissect anything if he was locked up. There was no way they would even think about giving him a scalpel.

"Why..." He started to laugh, probably for the millionth time that day. "I shouldn't have done that..." His voice was low and broken, obviously he was struggling. "Keira..." He started to laugh, even more hysterically than the last time.

She was sitting outside the door listening to her husband. She knew it killed him inside, she knew he regretted what he had done; it was destroying him. He couldn't stop thinking about what he could have done to him. Some evenings, he would start hallucinating that he was dissecting his son again, and that he was actually killing him this time, and it would go on for hours. He would even scream sometimes, at himself. Not someone else, but the him he was hallucinating was there, killing his son.

Every time Keira would hear him start to scream, laugh, or just anything like that, she wanted to help him. But she was honestly too afraid. She knew what could happen if she would go in there, so she just sat and listened. It killed her as well, both from the fact of what had happened to Stein, and from how his dad was reacting to it. She also knew that she wouldn't really be able to do anything to help in the end; it made her feel almost powerless.

Ever since Franken came up from that basement, he wasn't himself anymore.

He stood up as much as he could, and tipped the table over, completely forgetting that the cat was even there. He just started throwing everything, yelling, "I'M SUCH AN IDIOT!" as he did so, his voice dissolving into laughter. He started smashing stuff like beakers and vials, and started to tear into the cat, using the scalpel to slice right through its heart; he then threw the organ as well.

Keira heard him, and bursted into tears, running into her room so he wouldn't hear her.

* * *

Stein, Spirit, and Mr. Collins all got to the academy as everyone was leaving. Kami and Marie saw them as they were walking out, and sprinted over to them. When they got there, Kami hugged Spirit and wouldn't let go for a few minutes; Spirit didn't mind. Marie didn't hug Stein, but started to talk to him.

"What happened to your arm? Did you get hurt?" Marie cared about him almost more than anyone else in the world.

"I just got cut, I am fine."

"You better be!" She couldn't hold it in anymore. She ran up to Stein and wrapped her arms around him. His eyes widened and he just got tense. Mr. Collins started laughing at how the girls were reacting to them coming home, obviously enjoying what Marie was doing the most.

Kami and Spirit noticed what Marie had done; that was when they stopped hugging. They just kind of stood and watched what Stein was doing about it. Marie held on for about a minute, Stein not moving a single bit the whole time, until he said something.

"Marie... what are you doing?"

"Oh, sorry." She let go, kind of disappointed that he didn't hug her back, and that he just stood there. At the same time she wasn't very surprised, she almost expected it. She looked at her feet, starting to blush slightly.

"I am so glad that you guys are home!" Kami broke the silence for Marie; she did this mainly because she owed her one for embarrassing her before.

Stein's eyes got less wide, and he loosened up a bit, still obviously shocked from the recent physical contact. Spirit looked like he was about to laugh, but decided not to when Stein glared at him; he noticed what his weapon partner was going to do.

"Well, I better get going!" Marie said this, waving as she walked away. She wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Any of the other times when she thought Stein looked lonely, or down, or she just generally wanted to give him a hug, she managed to stop herself; why not this time? She supposed it was just because she was so worried about him, and it was.

They all watched her leave, then Kami said that she should go too and hugged Spirit again. Mr. Collins really wanted to make a remark about Marie hugging Stein, but he decided not to.

"Stein got a hug!" Spirit said this, obviously teasing him, laughing at the end. Stein punched him really hard in the arm, and Spirit yelled "Ow!" He started to rub his arm, thinking that it was worth the pain.

"I know." Stein said this with a totally blank face, almost a glare. But then loosened up, looking less annoyed by it. "But I am honestly not surprised. She seems like she is the type of person that would like physical contact."

"Yeah, she certainly does; she is always so cheerful. She really does seem like she cares about you, though," Mr. Collins said this, slightly fearing that he would get punched as well. Stein just kind of looked away, not liking the current topic at all.

"It's true, Stein. You can just tell by the way she acts around you." Stein sent him a glare, causing Spirit to flinch from an expectation of getting punched once again. But he didn't, the glare was enough for him.

"Stein, lighten up a little. It's not so bad to have someone that cares about you." He obviously didn't care about her the way she cared about him. He just kind of looked over at Mr. Collins, not having anything to say about it.

"Yeah Stein, a girl is actually paying attention to you! I don't know how you wouldn't like that. I couldn't stand to be apart from them!" Like always, Stein's lack of appeal towards girls was agitating Spirit to no end.

"Anyone that knows you knows that." Mr. Collins said, looking down at Spirit.

"That is more than true." Stein said this, thinking of all of the girls he talks to throughout the day. He was always with ones besides Kami, which made her get extremely mad at him when she would find out; lucky for him it wasn't very often. Sure they weren't dating, which surprised everyone, but she still had a tendency to get very jealous.

"I need to go tell Mr. Tredway about how the mission went. You guys can just go home now; have fun at your sleepover!" He yelled over his shoulder, smirking as he turned around and walked into the academy. Stein wanted to punch him, but he didn't really feel like chasing after him and going into the academy, all just for that. It would be weird.

"I swear, that man teaches just so he can mess with his students." Spirit said this, looking over at Stein.

"At times, it really seems like it." Stein looked away from the academy's doors, and faced Spirit. He had been using his soul perception, trying to determine how far he was down the hallway. He was still debating going after him slightly.

"Let's stop by my house first, that way I can get clothes, pillows, stuff like that."

"Okay, but don't your parents lock their doors when they go out of town?"

"Yeah, but I'll find a way in." Stein rolled his eye, not understanding how he would be able to do that.

They started down the road and reached Spirit's house not long after. He, of course, had to point out which house was Kami's so Stein could see; not that he would really care anyway.

Spirit walked around to the side of his house, getting up to the window that was the closest to the ground. He pushed himself up so he would be able to open it, but realized that those were locked as well. So he got down, walking past Stein and over to his driveway.

"What on Earth are you doing, Spirit?"

"Finding a way into the house," Spirit said this, picking up a large rock, walking back over to the window. He threw it at it, causing it to shatter. At that point, Stein couldn't think he was any more stupid even if he tried, and Spirit could tell this by the look he was giving him.

"They'll fix it when they get back!" Spirit yelled as he was halfway through the window.

"You're an idiot, Spirit," Stein said this, earning an aggravated sort of noise from his partner.

"Trust me. This isn't the first time I have done this."

"Of course it isn't." Stein really did enjoy being smart with him.

Spirit gave him a quick glare, one that was light in comparison to Stein's cold ones, running to his room after. He shortly ran out to the window, climbing out with a bag hung over his shoulder.

"You ready, stupid?"

"Yes, I am ready. And I am not that stupid."

"Oh yes, you are." Spirit tried to glare again, but failed horribly at it, causing Stein to laugh to himself a little bit. Then he shot his coldest glare yet to Spirit, causing his partner to shiver and back up slightly.

"What the heck was that for?"

"That, is how you glare." He said this, smirking at the end.

"No, that is how to shock someone into a coma."

"That's a glare. If I wanted to shock someone into a coma, I would use soul force. Or ask you to try to wire something."

"... That would actually work very well."

"Yes, it would be very efficient."

They were on Stein's road, and all of the neighbors that were staring at him almost went into a coma themselves, just from seeing him with another kid. They had seen him talking many times when he would walk by; the weird thing is, someone was actually there this time.

**Alright, I am going to start on the next one, basically immediately. Like I said, it was just going to be one long chapter, but I decided I would break it up a little bit so you wouldn't have to wait so long.. And haha, yes, they went to Austria. I think the next chapter is going to be one of the last, if not last, chapters before I jump ahead to their teen years. That will be, by far, my favorite part to write. IT WILL BE SWEET. Hmm... the fate of old Franken's sanity lies in my hands.. what shall I do with it I wonder...  
**


	7. The Boys' Sleepover

**I got a little bit lazy with getting this one done.. It didn't help that I was messing around with my sleep patterns a bunch. Anyway, I seriously hope you like this, I don't have much to say, and depending on feedback, this will be the last chapter before they are teenagers... so much will happen then. Yadada, read it. REVIEW! I HAVE OVER 425 REVIEWS AND ONLY LIKE 9 REVIEWS, MOST BEING FROM THE SAME EXTREMELY KIND PEOPLE. COME ON.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 7 The Boys' "Sleepover"

The two boys walked into Stein's house, going to his mother first.

"Who's this?" She asked, smiling like she always did. This time it wasn't just because she was cheerful, it was because Stein had someone over. That had never happened yet, and she was starting to think that it never would.

"This is Spirit. He's my partner at the academy; he's a scythe."

"Well, hello Spirit. It's nice to meet you," She said this, smiling down at the boy. She was probably a little too excited.

"It's nice to meet you, too." Spirit made sure he had manners. If he was going to stay at their house, he was going to need to be polite.

"Spirit's parents were going to be out of town for the night, so he was wondering if he could stay here."

"Of course he can! It will be no problem at all."

"Thank you," Spirit said this, yet again, making sure he was polite.

"You're very welcome. Like I said, it's no problem." She was glad that Stein would be talking to someone, he needed it.

"We are going to go to my room now." He said this as he started to walk away.

"You two have fun!" Spirit followed Stein down one of the hallways after she said this.

"You can just sit your stuff wherever really." Considering he still didn't have furniture, there wasn't really anything for it to get in the way of.

"Uh.. why don't you have any furniture in here?"

"I broke it all.." He said this, looking away from Spirit. "Don't ask."

"Don't worry, I won't." Spirit said this as he looked at the little piles on the floor: one was for clothes; one for books; one for notebooks; another had all of his stuff for expriments, mainly beakers and different chemicals; and a new one for his dissection stuff.

His father never, ever went into his room anymore, so he didn't have to worry about him seeing the stuff anyway.

"I thought your dad said he wouldn't let you dissect stuff until you got older?"

"He did." He said this, completely emotionless.

"Then why do you have the stuff?" Spirit seemed quite confused, which is acutally kind of understandable.

"Because he doesn't have to know."

"Won't he see it if it's just laying there?" He looked back from the pile and over at Stein.

"No, he never comes into my room."

"Oh. Will your mom tell him?"

"No, she said that she wouldn't." And he was definitely more than glad about this.

"Oh, okay. Your mom seems like she is really nice."

"Yeah, she is. Half the reason why she was acting the way she was is because you're here."

"She did seem like she was a bit overly happy." Spirit said this, looking at the pile once again, trying to think of how he could have broke all of his furniture.

"Yeah, it happens." There was a brief pause until Spirit broke it.

"Do you want to train?"

"Sure, I don't really see what else there is to do. Why not?" At this they both left his room and went outside. His mother wanted to ask what they were doing, but she didn't want to be annoying. She also didn't want to get in the way since he never really has friends over. In all reality, Spirit is basically Stein's only friend.

They got outside and went fairly far away from his house, and into his backyard. He acutally had quite a lot of land around his house. Not so much on the sides or the front, but more so his backyard. This would give them plenty of space for training.

Spirit transformed into a scythe, landing in Stein's hands. His mother watched out of a window in the back of the house. She thought it looked cool, and she just loved watching her son do something else other than sit in his room and read or experiment all day like he always did.

"Let's resonate a little bit before we run," Stein said this, thinking of the path that he had in the woods behind his house that he would tell his partner about when they were done.

"Okay, sounds good." Spirit started trying to feel Stein's wavelength, just as the other boy did the same. They began resonating, and the space around them started glowing blue, and wind started to blow around them; which all impressed his mother. She knew he was doing well for his age, but she had never seen him actually do anything yet.

They got their resonance to be very strong, and Stein tried to do witch hunter, even though there was really nothing to swing at.

The blade of the scyth changed into a large, blue transparent-like blade.

He tried to hold it as long as he possibly could. He got it to stay for a few minutes before it broke, which is actually rather good, considering most people can only keep it under a minute.

"Can we try one more time before we run?" Spirit asked this, earning the response he wanted to hear from Stein. Since he had agreed, they began resonating once more. They got it to the same point, but a little stronger.

As the blade changed, there was a sudden increase in the madness wavelengths; the one that Stein acutally hadn't felt all day, and hadn't been nearly as often as he used to. The resonance instantly broke due to this, as Stein's soul was rather different now, so it wouldn't match properly with Spirit's.

"What was that?" Spirit was more wondering why the resonance had broken. He still wasn't the best at feeling Stein's soul, so he could not tell that it changed very much; but he did a little bit, however.

"I don't know.." He said he didn't know, but he very well did. "Let's just try again.." The madness wavelengths were still at the same level as before, so he wasn't all that sure that it would even work, but wanted to see if he could get used to it.

"Sure thing," Spirit said this in a kind suspicious tone, but started to feel and try to connect with his soul anyway. He could tell something felt off about it, but he had no clue what it could be.

They began resonating, it worked at first. But Stein could feel the resonance starting to want to break, so he tried harder. He was acutally putting forth a lot of energy, and it was starting to exhaust him. But he wanted to be able to get use to it, that way if he were ever on a mission fighting someone and the wavelengths were to increase, he could still keep going.

He felt it start to slip more and more, so he just kept trying. He was actually very tired, and he felt it slip one more time and knew he couldn't stop it, so he just let the resonance break. The scythe changed to show Spirit in it.

"Why isn't it working, Stein?" He seemed concerned.

"I really don't know. Can we just run now? We can try again later when we get back."

"Uh, okay." The scythe changed back before he transformed back into human form, landing next to Stein. He gave him a sort of weird look, but stopped when Stein looked at him.

"Back in the woods there is a fairly long path that we can use. I have been on it quite a few times (that's where he went when searching for animals to dissect), and there isn't much that will get in the way."

"Okay, that should work." At that, they started running.

Stein was a little faster than Spirit, but he knew he wasn't used to it, so he slowed his pace down a little bit. They went at a fairly steady pace, and at first it was acutally pretty easy for them. At the time, it was kind of windy so the heat in the air wasn't too bad.

They saw some squirrels and rabbits, but Stein obviously didn't stop to get them, even though he kind of wished he would have. They got startled a few times when a group of birds would fly out over them from their nests. This didn't get to Stein as much as it did Spirit.

They went through the path quite a bit, and the sun was beating down through the trees, making them get pretty hot. Spirit started to get tired out, and started slowing down. Stein, however, still could have ran a long way. He knew that he was going to need some motivation to keep going, and he also knew that they needed to do this, so he thought of something after thinking for a bit.

"Hey, Spirit. You can stop for a minute." Spirit quickly stopped, breathing very heavily, glad that his partner was giving him a break. Stein had to catch his breath a little bit, but not nearly as much as Spirit did. He stood there for a couple minutes, that way he knew Spirit could pay attention.

"I have an idea. Let's race." As Stein said this, Spirit looked up. He didn't expect him to say this. He usually didn't like doing things like games; he had tried to get him to enough to know that by now. He smiled before responding.

"Okay, let's race."

"But-" Spirit interrupted him.

"But?" He was half interested, and half fearful of what he was going to say. He didn't want Stein to make this worse than it had to be.

"But, the loser get's a punishment."

"Okay, what's mine?" Spirit was interested now, not afraid.

"Hmm.." Stein thought. He hadn't thought of one yet, which he wondered why he hadn't. "If you lose, I will tell Kami about the girl you kissed behind the academy the other day."

"No! That's too much! Don't you know how mad she will get?!" Spirit started whining to him, wishing for some other punishment than that one.

"Nope. That's your punishment. You better run fast." Spirit tried, yet failed again, to glare. He couldn't glare when he was still trying to get his breath; and at this point Stein wasn't tired at all anymore.

"Ugh! Fine. But you run faster than I do!"

"Like I said, you better fun fast." He had a slight smirk on his face, enjoying his partner's reaction. He was going to get him to run.

Spirit made a groaning noise, then started trying to think of a terrible one for Stein, just in case if he did happen to win against him. Then he thought of it.

"Okay. That will be my punishment. If _I_ win, you have to tell me why you said "another" scar, and why you acted so weird about your dad." Stein instantly got stiff. But he realized that he would win for sure considering the shape Spirit was in, so he agreed.

"Fine. If you win, I will tell you. If I win, I will tell Kami." When he said he would tell Kami, he obviously didn't mean what he was going to tell Spirit.

"Deal." As soon as Spirit said this, he started getting anxious. He started to think of what she would do if she were to find out about it. She got extremely angry when he would even talk to a girl without her knowing, let alone kiss someone!

They gave each other a look, signaling each other to begin. So they started. At first Spirit ran ahead in front of Stein, not pacing himself at all. Stein didn't mind though since he knew it would quickly tire him out, and Stein would be able to pass him easily.

Not too longer after he thought this, he knew he was right. Spirit started to slow down, and Stein was getting close enough that he could start to hear just how heavily he was breathing. "He was an idiot; there is no way he would win that way," Stein thought as he ran next to him.

He ran ahead of him, being in the lead by quite a lot. Spirit started to get worried, and slowed down a lot. He started making whining noises, regretting that he ever agreed to this. He should have known that Stein would win, he was doomed for sure. He kept scolding himself, wanting to smash his head off a tree as hard as he could. Maybe Stein wouldn't tell her if he had a concussion; which in reality, he would still tell her either way.

They ran a long way in this position, but then Stein was starting to get a little tired. He could run a lot for someone that sat around all day. For some reason, Spirit wasn't surprised. He just seemed like the kind of person that was capable of anything if he tried.

Since Spirit had been going at such a slow pace for that long, he wasn't nearly as tired as before. He slowly started to get closer to Stein, inch by inch. He was starting to get more confident, and this helped him run better. It's surprising just how much confidence can effect what you do, and how you do it.

Before they knew it, Spirit was running right beside Stein. They were both extremely exhausted; they didn't even want to think of the way back. They were hoping that one another would let them just walk back.

Spirit started to get ahead of Stein, which started to make him mad. No matter how much he tried, he just couldn't go any faster. They had been running to long.

The trail was actually five miles, and they had almost ran the entire thing. Stein, of course, knew that they would be fairly dehydrated when they were done. He just hoped it wouldn't be too bad. He knew from a book he read, that the effects of dehydration can acutally get to be very serious.

I know from personal experience, that you can get very sick. It is not a fun feeling at all. I had to take some medicine for it, but since I absolutely hate the stuff, I refused to take it. This resulted in my mom trying to give me it in my sleep (which when writing this, made me think of the comparison of what Franken did), and I woke up half choking. Good job, mother.

They were starting to get to the end of the trail, which was a dead end. There was a river down a bank, the bank in which they would have to reach the bottom of to win. When Spirit saw the water, all he wanted to do was jump in. He wanted to drink the water, and swim in it. It was unbelievably hot out, and it didn't help that they were now running and racing each other.

Stein almost knew he was going to loose, as Spirit was almost about to go down the bank. He started sprinting as fast as he could, and started to catch up slightly; but unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough. Spirit reached the bottom, and was more than glad. He started to do a little dance, making himself look rather stupid.

Stein reached the bottom shortly after, and punched Spirit in the arm very hard. He seriously didn't want to tell him.

"Ow! What was that for?" He rubbed his arm again like he did earlier that day when they were at the academy.

"For dancing like an idiot." Stein said this, catching his breath; which Spirit was doing as well, but he was too happy to even take notice to. He hated that he was rubbing it in his face. He started to nervous. He really didn't want to have to explain it to him.. he had never needed to. His mother just assumed, so he never had to for her to find out.

Spirit slowly stopped rubbing his arms, looking over at the water as he did so.

"What? Do you want to get in?" Stein was just trying to buy some time before he would ask him.

"Yeah, I really do." He said this, looking back at Stein.

"Okay, well go ahead." He hoped that if he got in, he would just forget about it completely. But his hopes were soon gone.

"Okay, I will. But before I do, you have to tell me." Dang it.

He waited a minute before saying anything.

"Fine. I will do it when we are getting in." Spirit thought this was fine and got down closer to the water. He bent down and put his hand in, feeling that is wasn't too cold. They would want to avoid getting their clothes wet as best as they possibly could, but obviously would want to keep the bottom half covered.

So Spirit took his shoes and socks off, sticking them on a rock that was at the edge of the bank. Stein did so at the same time, and put his next to Spirit's. He walked back behind Spirit as his partner took his shirt off.

As he set it down on the rock, he turned around to see Stein take his off, and instantly notice the scar. Now he knew why he said "another"; he didn't need to be told.

He saw the large scar that went from the bottom of his abdomen to the top of his chest. Of course, he had a lot of questions floating around in his head. He was confused to no end. But he didn't have to ask any.

Stein saw how Spirit was staring at him, looking both horrified and confused. So he decided he would explain. That would at least get the other question that he had to answer for his punishment out of the way.

"My dad did it." Spirit just looked completely shocked.

"How? Why?" Stein decided he would tell the entire story as to avoid any confusion.

"Well.. a while ago, you know the day when we could finally do witch hunter?"

"Yeah.." He seemed like he could barely talk.

"When I came home that day, I wanted to see him do another dissection. So I went back into his lab and asked if I could. He said I could, but told me to watch one he was doing later that night; as he was already in the middle of one when I walked in. So I just waited in my room and read until he came to get me. He had me go into the dining room, and had me drink something. I was really confused as to why he did that, but I know now.

"He started talking to me, he appeared to be very glad that I wanted to watch him, and I started to become very tired. Before I knew it, I had fallen alseep right there with the glass in my hand, and my dad was still talking to me." At this point, Spirit seemed more confused than ever. He would soon get everything.

"I woke up, and everything was still very foggy. I was in a room, and it was pitch black; there were footsteps coming, but I couldn't really tell who's since they were muffled; and I couldn't move. As everything started to clear up, I realized it was my father coming towards me. I was in his lab, on the operating table." At this, Spirit looked absolutely terrified, which made Stein think he was catching on to what he was about to say.

"He got out his scalpel, but then realized he had forgot something. He made marks on me where he was going to make the incisions, then got his scalpel again. He started to cut where the scar is now. The pain was unbelievable..." He started to drift into thought, but then started to talk again.

"When he was done, I could see all of my organs. He started pointing to them, telling me which was which. Then..." Stein went into brief thought, wallowed, and continued.

"He reached down and started to touch them.." Spirit looked like he wanted to throw up. He couldn't believe someone's father would ever even dare to do this. Now he understood perfectly fine.

"I don't know what happened after that really. I had fainted from the pain. I woke up later in the dark again, and my father wasn't in his lab, so I ran out and into my room as fast as I could. Do you get everything now?"

"Yeah... how could he do that?" Stein started thinking of all the reasons.

"Do you remember what madness wavelengths are?"

"Yeah.. why?"

"Well, my dad experiences them. That is the main reason why he did that. He wanted to teach me something, but they caused him to do it in that way. I don't think he would have otherwise.. he knows what could happen." Spirit had certainly learned a lot about them that day.

"Wow..." He didn't have any words that he could think to say. Stein started waving his hands in front of his partners face, as he seemed to have zoned out a little bit.

"Hey, Spirit. Do you want to get in now?"

"Yeah." They got up and walked over, and stepped into the river. They walked over to a place that was dammed up in silence. They went to here because it would be much deeper, and they could get under more.

"Is there anything else weird about you guys that I should know?" Spirit said this, in a half joking tone.

"Well..." Stein said this, in that kind of tone kids use when they don't want to tell their friend something bad they have done. He hadn't necessarily done anything bad, but he certainly didn't want to tell him.

"What is it now?" Stein looked away for a moment, then looked down at the water that was up to their chests, then looked at Spirit once again.

"I am kind of affected by the madness wavelengths too..." He was never directly told this, but he was more than smart enough to know by now.

"What?" Spirit seemed a little freaked out. But I mean, when you know your parnter could lose it eventually, why wouldn't you be?

"Yep." He knew that Spirit understood him perfectly fine by his reaction, so he didn't feel the need to say it again.

"I thought you were just weird.."

"I am different than most kids anyway." Which this was true; insane or not, he was still different.

"Yeah, that's true." He seemed to be calming down a bit.

"And Spirit, you don't have to worry. Okay?"

"Okay." He trusted his partner that everything would be fine, which in reality, it was. It wasn't like Stein was always crazy as heck; it was just more at some times than others, that's all.

Another good thing is that since they started running, the madness wavelengths went back down. He really couldn't feel them at all anymore. He didn't know what had caused the sudden increase, but it sure did make him wonder. Now he was pretty calm, especially since his punishment was over with.

"Do you ever worry about your dad doing anything to you again?" For the first time, he didn't get tense when his dad was mentioned.

"No, not really anymore. I did a little bit at first; but now I realized he won't do anything, I mean he hardly even leaves his lab anymore. My mother really won't even let him get near me."

"Well I can see why. He touched your organs for Death's sake!"

Stein thought, "You don't have to remind me, it's not like I would just forget." But he didn't say it. "In a way, I am not all that surprised that he did it, though. And it was partially my fault for even asking him."

"You may have asked him, but you didn't expect him to do that."

"I certainly didn't. You should have seen me when I woke up.. both times really."

"I can only imagine how you reacted. You are generally calm and expressionless, but that would have to freak even you out."

"It did more than that." He thought of all of the nightmares he had from it, and all of the ways it affected him. Lucky for him, everything was starting to go back to normal; better than before, really.

Since they weren't hot from running anymore and the water wasn't exactly the warmest, Spirit started to shiver. It's kind of surprising that Stein didn't first, as he has the least amount of body fat out of the two. Stein noticed this, and was feeling a little cold himself.

"Do you want to head back now?" He asked. Spirit seemed like he was in agreement, and shook his head up and down as he held onto his arms like people always do when they are in cold water. It also didn't help that the sun was starting to set, and everyone knows that this makes the air outside considerably colder.

They got out and let themselves dry in the air as much as they could before heading back, which actually made them a lot colder. Their pants were still wet, but they at least took their shirts, shoes, and socks off before getting in; this all seemed to help to some degree.

Don't forget they had at least five miles to go before they got back, so they wouldn't want to go slow. They didn't run, though, as they were already starting to feel a little sore from it and were still exhausted.

They could tell that the sun was setting, and the air was rather nice for just walking. The bad thing about the woods when it starts to get dark out is the mosquitoes. So they started moving a little faster to avoid getting bit. It's really annoying to get bit, and very itchy as well. No kid wants that.

They started getting a little closer to Stein's house when they both heard something coming from the distance. They could see it coming: a boy that appeared to be the same age as them. He was riding one of those bikes that boys always like to use to impress people; the ones that are way too small for them.

The thing about him being there, was that he wasn't supposed to. Remember, Stein's family owned this section of the woods. This, of course, made Stein somewhat upset. Nobody ever went back there, so it actually suprised him a bit.

He got closer and closer, and appeared to have seen Stein and Spirit. He slowed down when he got to them.

"What are you doing back here?" Stein immediately asked.

"Riding on the trail. Why?" The boy seemed to think it was no big deal; perhaps he didn't know he was off his own section of land.

"This isn't your trail."

"Yeah, I know." So, he did know. Stein didn't like this kid at all, to be perfectly honest. He had heard him before when he was closer to his house, and he was very annoying. He was one of those "punks", and he would prove it to everyone here soon.

"Then get off." He wanted to end this as quickly as he could, as it was starting to get darker out, and he wanted to be back before the light was completely gone.

The kid got off his bike, and basically threw it to the side. He walked over to Stein and got right up to his face; he barely even noticed that Spirit was there at this point. When he got up close, he said something.

"Make me." He was going to rue that.

Stein could feel himself getting more and more agitated every second that kid breathed in his face. It wasn't just the madness, though. Anyone would get irritated when dealing with a kid like this one, it's impossible to avoid. Stein tried to stay calm, no matter how badly he wanted to teach this kid a lesson.

Spirit could see how hard he was trying, and he was glad that he could stop himself from doing anything to the kid. See, he was right; he did have things under control. Well, for now.

Stein didn't say or do anything for a minute, so the kid said something.

"Are you going to do anything? Or are you too afraid?"

"No, asswipe. I am giving you a chance to leave first." He wanted to make sure the kid knew he wasn't afraid of him. If anything, he was more afraid of himself.

"And what if I don't?" The kid got a little closer, and they were basically touching now. Stein did his best to contain himself.

"You don't want to know what." He was thinking about how he could use soul force on him right then and there. Also, that his weapon was standing right there with him. That kid better be careful to not annoy him much more.

"Yeah, I do."

"You do?" He could feel the madness wavelengths increase a little, and it was getting harder to keep himself from completely pounding this kid into the ground. Spirit could tell; even by the way he was standing. He figured that if anything did happen, he could try and break them apart, but he knew he would have to be careful.

"That's what I said." Stein tried harder and harder.

"Stein, just back away," Spirit called over to him, trying to avoid something before it even starts.

"No, let's see what he can do," the punk said to him in response, wanting just the opposite.

"Are you sure you want to see?" Spirit called to him.

"For the last time, yes." This kid seemed like he was extremely annoyed as well, but it was nowhere close to what Stein felt.

"Stein, just try not to hurt him too bad. Okay?" He was starting to hate this kid as well. What was the problem in scaring the kid a bit? Stein would just have to keep himself somewhat controlled.

"I can try," he said this, cracking his knuckles as he did so. From the way they kept asking him if he wanted to see or not, and the look Stein was currently giving him, the kid was feeling very nervous; but he did his best to not show it.

"Come on." The kid tried to move it along as fast as he could. The ominous look coming from Stein was starting to really freak him out.

"You asked for it," Stein said this as he took a step back, pulled his arm back, and punched the kid as hard as he could in the nose. By the noise it made, he might have broke it.

The kid put his hand up to his nose, pulling it back to see blood was coming out now. Before he could even say anything, Stein went after him again. This time he punched him in the jaw, hard enough that he was going to have a nasty bruise. This kid didn't think he was that strong judging by how he looked.

He quickly shot his wavelength into the kid as hard as he could, sending him into the tree that was not far behind him. The tree was one of those tiny, little things, and appeared to have snapped a bit. Not surprising though; if anything he would have expected it to have fallen over all together.

This kid was about done with Stein, but he didn't feel the same way. He walked up to where he was sitting on the ground, grabbed his shirt and pulled him up a bit. He punched the kid in the nose once again. How painful would that be? Just imagine!

He went to see what would happen if he shot his wavelength directly into the kids head when Spirit came up to them. Before he could do anything, Spirit touched his friend on the back.

"Come on. I told you to not hurt him too bad." Stein released his grip on the kid slightly.

"I am going to teach him to not mess with me again."

"Stein, I think you have already done that," he said this, based on how the kid was shaking and trembling. Stein realized just how much he had done to the kid, and let go of him.

"Leave. Now." He said to the kid, pointing to the left. The kid quickly got up as fast as he could, in that amount of pain at least, and got on his bike. He peddled as hard as he could, getting out of there right away. He definitely learned his lesson.

"Now I know that if we are in an alley or something, I won't have to be afraid if you're around." Spirit didn't think he was going to go that far, but at least Stein proved that he could defend himself against idiotic teenagers.

"Not exactly," Stein said this, earning a confused look from Spirit. Stein just looked at him with a face, then he realized. Spirit realized that sometime Stein could even end up attacking _him_.

"Oh.. yeah. I forgot." Stein didn't really say anything as he watched the kid go out of sight. It was actually starting to get fairly dark, so they needed to get moving.

"Do you want to keep going?" Spirit asked his partner.

"Yeah." He looked over at Spirit, then they both started back on their way home.

Stein knew that his mother wouldn't mind too much if they were back a little bit late, but if it got too late she would start to worry. They only had a couple miles, so it won't be much longer until they were home if they don't mess around; which they never did do.

They walked the rest of the way home in almost complete silence; besides the noises coming from birds flying out of trees and the occasional exchange of words, but that wasn't often at all. They didn't exactly seem to mind either.

When they were walking through his backyard the sun had just set, so it looked like they got back just in time. His mother wasn't worried, and actually rather happy that they were gone so long. It meant that they were actually doing stuff, she didn't know what, but it was stuff. I seriously doubt she would be very happy if she knew Stein had broke a kids nose and caused him internal damage, along with some bruises as well.

When they got to Stein's room, he was the first one to say something.

"If you want to shower you can go first."

"Okay, thanks." After he said this, he grabbed out a fresh pair of clothes and went into the bathroom.

Stein just stayed in his room and read like he always did. He had finished the book on the human digestive system a while ago, and had started one on the anatomy of all of the bones.

He had a sudden craving to do a dissection, but of course he couldn't do that right now: he didn't have any subjects, and certainly couldn't go get one; also because Spirit was over. So he just had to try his best to ignore it and keep reading.

Once Spirit was completely dry, except for his hair of course, and dressed, he came back to Stein's room. He got up from his bed and went to drab clothes so he could get in, but Spirit stopped him for a minute.

"Hey, Stein." As he said this the gray-haired boy turned his head to look at him, making a noise that sounded like "Hm?" as he did so.

"I heard that weapon-meister partners often move in together when training."

"And?"

"I was just wondering if you would want to. You seem like you are kind of bothered by your family, and also that way we could train outside of school a lot more often. You also won't have to get new furniture for here." He said the last part looking over at his little pile of stuff.

Stein stood there for a minute not saying anything, and it was making Spirit anxious. He could tell by the way he looked; so he waited a little bit longer before answering him, just to get more of a reaction out of him; and, it had worked just like he wanted it to.

"Sure." He said this, thinking about how he wouldn't be around his dad or mom anymore, how he would actually have some furniture when he moves in, and how he could probably do dissections whenever he wanted.

"Good. I will talk to the person at the school that deals with that stuff."

"Okay." Stein said this as he walked out of his room. It felt weird not having to unlock his door; he even tried to, but realized that it wasn't locked. He had just always done it, so it had become a habit over time.

Spirit noticed this, and couldn't help but laugh to himself. He thought it was rather strange that he always did this, just as he found it strange that he had so little things. He looked at the pile again, seeing things that were meant for science, and not really much of anything else. He would honestly die of boredom if he had just that. But of course, they really didn't have the same interests.

Spirit thought about how he might be able to understand more about this kid once they were living together. He was a different and confusing kid, but he liked him. He wasn't rude or anything, just not as open as everyone else.

It had actually been Mr. Collins' idea for them to move in together. He wanted Spirit to watch him for him after school. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that something wasn't right at home; and he had been right, as Spirit knows now.

"Hey, Spirit." Mr. Collins said as he jogged down the hall to catch up with Spirit, who was currently going to meet up with Stein before they left for Austria.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Collins."

"Have you ever heard of the students moving in with each other?" Spirit gave him a confused look, but responded very shortly after.

"No, I haven't. Why?"

"I think you and Stein should consider doing that. I have a feeling that something isn't right at his house; I need you to watch over him."

"Uhh, sure thing.. but why?" He was actually quite confused. Why did he need to watch over his partner?

"Just, can you please do this for me? And I don't want you to tell Stein that it was my idea. If he asks, just say you heard it from another student. Do you think you can do that?"

"Uhh, yeah. I will ask him about it."

"Thank you, Spirit. I really appreciate you doing this." So when Spirit said he would talk to people at the school that deal with that stuff, he meant Mr. Collins.

He had no clue what to do, so he just leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He was actually fairly tired: this was from going on their first mission, doing extra training, and running 5 miles and walking 5 back. That was a lot of work for one day! Especially compared to just having to do regular training like he always did.

After a few minutes, he started to relax, and then fell asleep.

Something they didn't know, was what happened when Stein and him were talking. His mother was alseep in her room, and his dad had actually came out of his lab for the first time in a few days (he has a bathroom connected to it, if you were wondering).

He was standing at Stein's door, listening to their conversation. He was trying to keep himself from falling down, and was also trying to keep himself from laughing so they didn't hear him; which he actually succeeded in doing both of those things.

He needed something to dissect, but luckily he had enough control to not go in there. Instead, he just listened to his son and his friend. He never heard him talk anymore, and kind of missed him a bit, too. But he never let himself go near him, even if his wife would allow him. He just figured he would be safer that way.

He could tell that Stein was doing to leave the room, so he wobled his way through the hallway, slightly leaning against the wall as he did so. Stein almost saw him, but he got in just in time. He shut the door as quietly as he could, laughing and dropping to the ground after he did so.

Stein could hear, but it wasn't anything different compared to how he was lately, so he just ignored it and went into the bathroom.

He finished and dried off, just like Spirit had. He came back to his room, walking in to see Spirit laying down asleep, curled up on the bottom of his bed.

Stein was debating whether he should just leave him at the bottom, or if he should move him to the couch. In the end, he thought that it might be best to take him to the couch since he could have a nightmare and end up kicking him or screaming or something like that in the middle of the night. Spirit didn't need to see and or feel that.

He picked up his partner in a way that wouldn't wake him up, and started to take him out to the living room. It sure is a good thing that Stein was strong, as the hallways were fairly long; and it wouldn't be very good if he were to drop him on the floor.

He sat him down on the couch, and stood there for a few seconds looking at him, shaking his head as he did so. He went back into his room, and was feeling quite tired himself, to be honest. He also "fought" that one kid, so there's that as well. He didn't actually get tired often, so he figured he would enjoy it and just relax for once.

He got into bed and got under his comforter, feeling his muscles start to loosen up a bit. He actually kind of jumped as he felt this; ever since he felt that similar feeling when his dad had drugged him, every time he would start to relax like that he got startled. He then realized that it was something natural, and started to feel it again.

He closed his eyes, and before he knew it, he was sound asleep. His dad could tell by the way his soul felt, and the same for Spirit as well.

He slipped out of his lab in the same fashion he did the last time, keeping his balance as well as he could. He saw Spirit sleeping on the couch when he got to the living room, and he went over and picked him up. This was extremely hard considering he could barely keep himself up, but he managed.

He started down the hallway to his lab, and Spirit woke up when they were halfway down it. He went to scream at the sight of the tall, grinning man; but Franken covered his mouth with his hand and used a pressure point on him. He was out cold once again.

He brought him into his lab and set him down in a chair. No, there would be no dissections tonight; only a fright or two. He felt some sanity come over him for a bit, the most he had felt in a long time. So he went over to his desk and started researching, leaving the kid leaning over in the chair. Though he knew what he was doing better than before, he still had the same intentions.

He did stuff on the computer until Spirit awoke, jerking up in the chair as he realized where he was. He would have tried to run out, but the door was shut; and he could tell it was locked, although there was very little light.

Spirit could hear footsteps coming from behind him and got very tense, then saw the man walk around to meet the front of him.

"Hello, Spirit. I heard you and Stein are moving in together." He said this as he looked down at the kid. Spirit thought "How did he know?", but quickly responded with something else.

"Yes, sir, we are."

"Look, there is one thing I need you to do." As he said this, he could feel the madness coming back, and he began to feel like he had before.

"What is it?" Spirit said this, noticing a slight difference in how Franken was standing.

"I... need you to watch over Stein." He was trying to keep the laughter in. "And make sure.. that nothing happens to him.. And if you ever even think about hurting him-" he said this part as he walked to the right side of the boy, pulling out a scalpel that was in his pocket. Spirit instantly started shaking. He put it up to the boy's throat, and pressed the side, flat part of the blade that you can see your reflection in like a mirror (the part that couldn't cut him) against his skin. "you will regret it." As he said this last part, he dragged the scalpel across. At the angle it was at, the sharp part was just _barely_ making contact with the boy's skin; but it was enough that it made a very small slit, and a couple tiny drops of blood started down his throat.

A short giggle let out, but he coughed into his hand as he walked in front of the boy again. Spirit couldn't make any sense of what was going on, and now there was a stinging pain coming from the slight incision the man had just made.

"I won't do anything to him, I promise." He tried to keep his cool and not start screaming or anything like that.

"I don't believe it." Franken said this as he stared at the blood on the blade of the scalpel, seeming to be almost transfixed by it. This, of course, creeped Spirit out to no end.

"Why? I would never want anything bad to happen to him, let alone have me be the one to do it." Franken laughed.

"How do you expect me to just believe you? Anyone can lie, it's a very easy thing to do; that's probably why everyone does it all the time."

"I am not lying to you, sir." Spirit tried to ignore how uncomfortable he was feeling. Stein's father just laughed some more, then there was a faint screaming that could be heard from outside of the room. A large grin spread across his face as he heard this.

Spirit knew who's scream that was. It was Stein's. He had begun to have a nightmare; one about dissections, yet again. It was that his father was dissecting him, much like the last time. The thing that was different was that his mother was there, watching and laughing at the whole thing.

Spirit had already forgot that he had nightmares, and automatically assumed that it was something his father had done to him. I mean, once he had touched his sons organs, there goes all trust that was once there.

"What did you do to him?!" Spirit said this, sounding very concerned for his parnter.

He giggled. "Nothing..." He said this as few more giggles came out while he was carving shapes that looked like eyes into his own skin. The grin across his face wasn't exactly convincing. Spirit jumped out of the chair, as there was nothing keeping him down, and ran to the door.

Apparently ever since the incident, there had been some new locks installed. It was designed to keep the man in his lab during night time, but he figured out how to get past the locks. Only the clever and oh so sadistic Franken knew how to open the door, so Spirit could not get it opened on his own.

Franken continued to carve away; and as I said ealier, there would be no dissections. Lines being cut into skin just enough to make blood come out, is certainly not a dissection. Spirit started banging on the door, still hearing Stein scream behind the noises he was making and the quiet giggles. Although they were quiet, there was still something very eerie and unsettling about them.

Spirit turned to the man, yelling "Open this door right now!" He didn't even notice the boy had talked to him, and was lost in his own little world, oblivious to his surroundings other than the scalpel. Spirit turned back to the door and began frantically trying to open it, but it was to no avail. He tried and tried and failed and failed.

He went back to banging the door, but Franken realized that it would wake his wife. If she found him keeping the boy with blood coming from his throat locked in here, scalpel still in his hands, he would most likely get sent away just as she said would happen.

So he walked up to Spirit, using a different pressure point this time, and when the boy had his hand against the door, he slid to the floor. Franken did just the same.

"I guess he wasn't lying." He said this, hysterical laughter coming out at the end, echoing with the screaming from his son.


	8. The Encroaching Thought

**Hiya... I was a little lazy with this one. It's not completely my fault though! I started reading _Whispers_ and well became engrossed in it. I basically did like a HUGE writing session kind of thing last night, getting over 5,000 words. I think that got me moving.. But anyway, I hope this one isn't underdeveloped or anything. I feel like it might be, but oh well.**

Not Strange, Just Different  
Chapter 8 The Encroaching Thought  
He glides across the room in his chair, scalpel in hand; coming from his desk, making his way over to the table. A nice new subject lays there, ready to be cut open. He brings the scalpel up in the air, the overhead light causing a beam to shoot into the subjects eye. He lowers the knife down onto the warm skin of the animal, gliding the blade across.  
He soaks in the color of the red liquid while Spirit sits in his room, talking to Kami. They were laying in bed next to each other, and had just finished doing you know what. This was something they did very often, to be perfectly honest.  
At this point they were very close to each other, and barely left each other's sight. Kami didn't get jealous anymore, mainly because over the years Spirit has gotten a lot better at hiding things from her; he didn't really worry about it either, he was just so used to it now.  
He was always with other girls, but he liked Kami the best by far. He actually loved her, and the others were simply for his entertainment. Seems wrong right? He couldn't really see that, though. Either that, or he just didn't really care about it too much.  
Stein was cutting through the gastroesophageal tube, writing down various observations and findings from his current experiment. He could always tell when Spirit was doing that one thing with Kami, and it got rather annoying that often times he would use soul perception and have to know that that was happening.  
He was glad that they were done, it was rather ignorant of Spirit. He could be doing things that were actually productive or worth his time, not that. Of course, he could be helping out Stein. He always rejected the offer; and by the way he refused, he could tell it wouldn't happen any time soon. He was getting bored with animals, but what could he do?  
Stein was basically done with the dissection, so he set the scalpel down. He started wheeling to the kitchen, yes the kitchen, because he had to make dinner for him and his partner and his girl friend. He was the only one that knew how to cook, surprisingly, so he always had that job. He was never even hungry, it was just Spirit. He could swear that Spirit could eat all day nonstop, and still not be full.  
When he got everything ready (of course washing his hands before doing so, considering he did just do a dissection), he kicked off the wall, shooting himself into his room. He almost made it, but the wheel happened to just barely hit one of Spirit's shoes (he never put things away, much unlike Stein). Because of this, Stein flew back and hit his head off the doorway.

* * *

They were teenagers now. Stein and Spirit had moved in together a while ago, and it had actually been going pretty well. Other than the usual bickering and picking on each other, they really didn't fight much. There had been a few occasions, but not anything else besides that.

When they moved in, Stein finally had some furniture again. The furniture the two boys had was very similar to the old stuff they had: Spirit's actually was the same since he had just brought everything from his house there, and Stein, of course, just got some stuff that was similar to what he had. But it was little different.

Stein comforter was still a black one, but it had stitches running all across the entire thing, the stitches coming from everyhwere in different directions. His walls also had stitches covering them, just as his bookshelves did. Spirit got that he liked dissecting, but what he didn't get is why he would want his furniture to look as if it had been cut open.

He got another desk and chair; this time the chair was basically the same as the one he has as an adult. It had white and green fabric, and stitches in the spots where the two colors met. He practically lived in this chair. He was always at his desk researching, studying; except, of course, when he was dissecting. Then he would wheel over to the area in his room that was set up for dissecting.

That was the major thing that was different. The little area was a lot like his father's, but for some reason he never saw the comparison. Spirit never really got it either, as the only time he was in the man's lab it was pretty dark, so he never got a good view of the place.  
Stein did dissections fairly often, and had been getting quite good at it. His incisions were becoming more precise, he had started learning more from it, and had even begun going experiments. So now it wasn't just from a craving, he was actually figuring out stuff. Some nights he wouldn't go to sleep so he could do just one more dissection, or just one more experiment.  
Spirit continued doing what he did best: talking to girls. He was now dating Kami, but was not completely dedicated to her. He would still go around and flirt and do stuff with other girls without her ever finding out. In that way, he was actually very good at being sneaky.  
Him and Kami had been dating for at least a year or more, and they had very strong feelings for each other. Kami still got mad at Spirit over the stupidest things, just like she did when they first started to get close to each other when they were younger.  
Stein and Spirit were, by far, the best weapon-meister pair at the academy, and had been doing a lot of training over the last few years. They had so many stances, techniques, and various things they would do to help them fight mastered, that it was hard to believe.  
Stein was a genius at using soul force at this point. He had put in a lot of extra time practicing it, and that time, in fact, was worth it. He could nearly knock someone unconscious with one blow if he tried hard enough. And along with that, he had also become very good at adapting his soul accordingly to other peoples'.  
His soul was very large and very flexible, able to nullify anyone's attacks when he would modify his to match his opponent's. This had come in handy in many cases over the years, as they had gone on a lot of missions at that point.  
Him and Spirit had been doing so well; and from running miles and lifting weights and doing various things, Stein was very close to earning the title of being the best meister, the one his own father currently had. Considering he hadn't graduated yet and he was this close, he could easily make that title by the time he is done.  
He fought kids on a regular basis, half the time ending up being stopped by his partner. Kids would sometimes want to fight him to see if they were capable of defeating him, which of course they were not, or they would just annoy him to the point that he would go after them. Another reason is that beating a kid in a very painful manner pleased him very much, and often released some of the tension from him.  
Most people feared him, to be perfectly honest. They never dared to mess with him, and didn't like to get in his way at all. He was generally a fairly nice person if he didn't see you as being annoying, but once you get him going you will pay for it big time.  
The madness wavelengths were definitely still around. He did hallucinate still, and did have nightmares, and it would often make him want to do very, very bad things to people. But luckily he was able to resist his urges, and hadn't done anything major to anyone.  
At this point he was also very use to having little to no sleep; between experimenting and dissecting all night, reading, and nightmares. Due to all of these things he was habituated to getting little sleep, and it didn't really affect him much anymore. This was helpful because he stopped being late to class, for that reason anyway.  
He would often bring his scalpel to the academy, just so he could scare the living crap out of people. He never really intended on doing much with it, but he loved the reaction he got out of people when he would stick it right up to them.  
Once he snuck up behind Spirit when he was kissing Kami, and he saw the scalpel out of the corner of his eyes and jumped. He had ended up head butting Kami, so of course she got mad at Stein for scaring him like that. He also used this as a motivation to get his partner up for school in the morning. Although Stein was okay with no sleep, Spirit was just the opposite.  
Even though he hadn't experimented on him yet at this point, it still gave him the creeps. He didn't like the way the scalpel looked, especially after having seen his father with one. But, of course, that is perfectly understandable.  
Their appearance was almost the same. They were taller, that's for sure, and were bascially fully grown. Stein hadn't experimented on himself yet, so he still just had the set of stitches running across his chest. His clothes were different, now being the same as when he is an adult.  
Spirit's clothes were not that way though, they were actually rather close to when he was a kid for some reason. I guess he didn't feel a need to change things up, that's all. Another thing that stayed the same was his long, bright red hair. It is and always will be that long length that always got in his face.  
As for Marie. She didn't look much different, but she looked more like a teenager, almost like a young woman. They were 16, so they should have grown quite a lot. She still has the same hair like Spirit does, only her's is blonde, long and wavy.  
She still loved Stein to death, and those feelings only got stronger over the years. She was always nice to him, and he should have been able to tell by now. But even with the hug, and the thing Kami had said a while back, the clues had never connected in his mind. She really wished he would feel the same way, but it didn't seem to be happening.  
She did, however, get him to warm up more. He was often around her, simply because he could at least tell she wanted that. When at the academy, he would often listen to her tell him about things that happened at home or throughout her day. He listened, but his mind was usually half focused on other things along with that; being science, of course.  
He didn't really mind listening to her talk, walking around with her, helping her out with homework when she was having trouble, or just with other little things; and it always thrilled Marie when he would do things for her. She thought it was the cutest thing in the world. Though he was tough, she saw a soft side in him that not many other people did.  
Since he was still affected by the madness, she could still tell something was off. Whenever things seemed worse, she would always worry. She still didn't really know what was going on exactly, but over the years she had started to get a basic idea. She always tried to go with the little knowledge she had, and tried to help him out if she could. Just simple things like comfort him, even if he didn't see it that way, and it appeared to help to some degree. This pleased her greatly.  
Whenever he had his scalpel out, she was the only one that wouldn't run away. He never got this, but it was because she knew why he did it. She knew he wouldn't hurt anyone (she was at least fairly certain), so it didn't really scare her. She also knew that out of everyone he knew, she would be one of the last people he would want to hurt, anyway.

* * *

Stein's dissection had actually been something he was doing to take a break from studying. He had been studying quite often, to be honest. Not a specimen, even if that's what he would prefer to study, but school material. Most nights he would study for hours, dissect something or read, and study for another few hours.  
Spirit, on the other hand, did not. You would rarely ever find him studying for more than 15 minutes a day. He tried to get himself to, but he didn't have a very good attention span. He would often start studying, and after 10 minutes his thoughts would start to drift off into Spirit Land. He would spend the remaining 5 minutes going back and forth between paying attention and Spirit Land, until he would finally give up for the night.  
Marie studied fairly well, actually. She would study for a few hours, but not as much as Stein would. She could always tell when he would study more than usual. Although he was used to getting very little sleep, there were still those days when he would be a little more tired than usual. She always loved watching him struggle to keep his eyes open, or when he would jerk awake during the middle of class due to something like a sudden noise.  
It was pretty funny, and Spirit seemed to think so as well. He usually made remarks to Stein saying that he should get more sleep. Stein would say, "In your dreams," in response, and Spirit would say, "At least I have dreams," back. This always made him get a glare from Stein. And when he said "At least I have dreams," it techincally had two meanings. Even when Stein would sleep, he had nightmares, not dreams.  
Anyway, by far, Stein cared about the upcoming test the most out of everyone. He just wanted to benefit from going to the academy as much as possible, as he does not want it to be a waste of time. This test was supposed to be very hard, and it was to most people. But because of all his studying, it was actually a rather simple test. It was an exam. The super written exam.  
They had finished with dinner and Spirit was washing the dishes; since Stein cooked, he could clean up afterwards. Kami finally went home before he started to clean, and Stein went into his room to study for the exam again. He had already studied for 3 hours today, but he still wasn't satisfied.  
He rolled over to his desk, and got out the notebook he used for school. At this point, he had learned just about all there is to learn. So he was lightening up a bit with studying, but it was still pretty intense, as you can already tell.  
It would always make him really mad when he would be trying to study, and a hallucination would destract him so he couldn't. That wasted time. But luckily he didn't have the problem tonight, so he was able to concentrate.  
Spirit had just finished washing and drying the dishes, and put them all back in their proper place. As he did this he realized that he still hadn't studied, and dread rushed over him. He hated studying. It was, by far, the last thing he wanted to do. So he hunched his back, and sauntered back to his room, trying to think of an excuse as to why he could get out of studying.  
He plopped down onto his bed, and stared at the ceiling for a few seconds before grabbing the baseball that was on his nightstand. He started throwing it up into the air, catching it as it came back down to him. He did this for a few minutes, trying to do anything but study.. Ugh! studying.  
He threw it up in the air once more, but on the way down he didn't catch it. No, instead he missed and the ball hit him in the eye. He curled up slightly as he said, "Ow!" He then rolled onto his stomach, and spoke aloud into his pillow; the pillow his face was now burried in.  
"Maybe I should just study." After he said this he got up from his bed and started working. He couldn't concentrate, but he just kept trying so he wouldn't fail the stupid test.  
Stein was having better luck, and had actually made some progess. He went on a little longer, until his total was up to 4 hours, the basic goal he liked to reach every day. He closed everything up, and decided he could clean up the dissection from earlier, as he hadn't taken the time to do so yet.  
He cleaned it like he always did, and put everything back; everything except for the scalpel. He took some time to look at the blade, and appreciate just how sharp it really was. Spirit's "soul mate" was Kami, and Stein's was his scalpel. He would probably have a heart attack if he were to lose it.  
He didn't really feel like starting another dissection, nor did he want to study. In the end, he decided that even though he would wake up early, he would just go to sleep. Maybe this way he can make up for the lost sleep that has built up over time.  
He took off his lab coat and threw it so it was resting on the back of his chair. He changed into a pair of sweat pants, ones that only extend to the knee. Lastly he took off his shirt, exposing his now well developed muscles. Due to training so much, he was actually pretty well built. It also helped that he didn't have any fat, just muscle, so you could always see the shape of his muscles well.  
He climbed into bed, pulling up the covers to be just over his shoulders. When he would get in bed, he never understood why he didn't like to sleep; he was always just so comfortable. It was a chance for his mind, and body to relax (until the nightmares came, at least), which never happened during the day. His mind was always running, nonstop.  
He laid there for about 15 minutes until his mind slowed down enough, and he started to drift off into sleep. This was probably one of the only times he was asleep before Spirit was. Right now he was playing a video game, and it was his favorite one since he got to blow stuff up. He actually didn't go to sleep for another hour or two.  
Stein slept, and slept, and no nightmares came. Until he was asleep for a couple hours, at least. When he had a nightmare, they could occur at any time throughout his sleep cycle. But they always seemed to happen when he was in more of a deep sleep. This is natural, of course, for it to occur most often when he was in the middle of REM sleep, as this is the time when you are more likely to be thrown into a dream state.  
The nightmare opened up that he was sitting in his room studying like he did a good majority of the time that he spent at home, of course, when he wasn't dissecting something. He was just looking through his notebook, when all of the sudden he was in a deep red liquid, just like he had seen on his way home from his first day at the academy.  
Except, there was one thing different. He had that same extreme pain from breathing it in, as he wasn't able to hold his breath forever. And he was just floating in it, seeing nothing but the blood. The different thing, however, was that there was something with him. It was hands. A bunch of tattered, qrotesque hands.  
They were all moving towards him, seeming as if they were trying to get him. Which, in fact, they were. The disembodied hands were getting closer, surrounding him completely. Stein tried to get away, but they were just everywhere. There was no opening to get away, and the minute the hands saw (Death knows how they saw) that he was trying to get away, they started to grab him. Some grabbed onto his hands, some his arm, legs, feet, and one his neck.  
They had a death grip, which was actually increasing by the minute. They started to grab onto him so hard that their glass-like finger nails started to puncture his skin. This was very painful, of course. The more the finger nails went into his skin, the more it hurt. He noticed that his own blood was starting to mix into the blood he was submersed in.  
One hand actually broke a vein. Because it was more of a major blood supply, the blood he was in actually started to get into his own. Anyone that has done some sort of research on blood or just has some basic knowledge, for that matter, knows that different blood types can't be mixed. His was different.  
He was hoping that it wasn't, but it was. He could instantly tell. The other blood started to flow through his veins and course through his body. Something else he knew was that when two blood types mix, it results in death. At the time being he didn't know it was a nightmare, so he was actually scared that he was going to die.  
He could feel his blood start to clot. It hurt. It wasn't just pain, it was something so much more than that. It was even worse than when his father cut him open, that's how bad it was. The feeling of less and less blood flow through his body due to the clotting was undescribable.  
When he started feeling the pain of the blood clotting, in real life he clenched his teeth and grabbed ahold of his comforter, holding it very tightly in his fingers. He started sweating and shaking.  
Because it was clogging, he had very poor circulation in many areas, if any. This resulted in different areas of his body going cold. It was so cold, an almost painful kind of cold. He also started losing feeling in those areas. The first place to go was the arm that had the vein that had been broken. He couldn't move his fingers, he couldn't move his hand. Then the feeling of complete numbness quickly started to spread up his entire arm. It was like a wave of coldness.  
As everything started getting colder, he curled up in his bed, pulling the covers up to him, still holding onto the thing for his dear life. He started to tremble worse than before.  
The pain continued to increase, the clotting never ceased, and his circulation was extremely poor. He would have been screaming, but he couldn't. He was submersed in liquid, his lungs and throat wouldn't allow that to happen.  
Just as he felt everything was completely numb, and his life was a second from ending, his eyes shot open. He gasped for breathe as if he really hadn't been able to breath, and took in a large amount of air. He tightened his grip on the comforter as he tried to get his breathe back, shaking with fear. He was in a cold sweat.  
He thought he was free of everything, but he wasn't. A large shadow-like thing started to loom over him. It was almost like a large cloud of smoke that had the basic shape of a body. It was like a person wearing a large cape of smoke, actually. The edges of the cloud were very rough, but there was still a definite outline.  
As the thing crept closer to him, he started to sit up in his bed, backing into the corner of his room. The thing seemed to have something in his hand. It was a... scalpel? He saw this, and shot back. The instant he hit the wall and felt how cold it was on his bare skin, it reminded him of the dream and made him start to shake and tremble even more than when he was having the dream.  
He let out a short, raspy scream. As the thing got over top of him, he cowered down, sweat running down the side of his face. He started to hear a thousand whispers mixing with laughter. It was a strange sound. It started getting louder and louder, almost to a painful volume.  
He put his arms up to his ears, closing his eyes to shield himself from the sight of the cloud thing in front of him. After he closed his eyes, he felt the blade of the scalpel it had make contact with his skin. This made him jump and turn, smaking his elbow into the wall. The thing started to carve a line down Stein's side, and he felt the blood start to run down his skin.  
He let out another scream, and the whispers and laughter got louder. He curled up even more than he already was. The thing lifted his blade off his side, and the instant he did that Stein lunged at the shape. He jumped forward from the corner, and swung his arm out at the thing. The minute his arms swept right through the cloud, it faded away and the whispers went to and abrupt stop.  
He just grabbed his covers and pulled them up to himself and sat in bed, trying to keep his breathing under control. He slowly, but finally, stopped shaking.  
He looked over at the nightstand that stood next to his bed and grabbed the alarm clock. He looked at it, seeing that it was only 3:47. He sat it back down onto the nightstand, leaning back into the wall and taking one final big breath after.  
He laid back down in bed and tried to get comfortable again. Eventually he did so and drifted of into sleep. It was actually kind of surprising that he had been able to go back to sleep as easily as he had; you actually could have expected him to not at all.  
He slept through the rest of the night rather peacefully compared to before, and woke up seeing that it was now 7:34. That's better. He got up out of bed and went over to his desk, pulling out a notebook and writing down what had happened earlier.  
He didn't write down everything at this point since he had so many dang nightmares and hallucinations that it would be too hard, but he still, however, wrote down the worst and most frightening experiences he had with things like that; and those two things happened to fit nicely into that category.  
Once he finished recording it in great detail like always, he started looking through some of the things he had down already. One that got his attention more than some of the others was one that he had wrote down last week. It was a nightmare of a dissection he was doing. He was dissecting Spirit. He was sure it meant nothing, but it still got to him. The fear in Spirit's eyes was the worst part.  
Sure he was sadistic, but he was still kind of protective over Spirit. He did mess with him, but that was little stuff; it was never anything that would really hurt him, just minor pain.  
He read a couple more and put the notebook back, pulling out another one that had what he needed to study for school.  
He studied for a few hours, put a shirt on, then went out of his room to see if Spirit was up or not. He had been thinking about the nightmare he had last week. Whenever he would start to think about it, for some reason he wanted to be around Spirit.  
He was just in the living room sitting on the couch, watching TV like he always did on a Saturday. Stein sat down in the chair that was next to the couch.  
"Hey, what are you doing out here?" Spirit said this, seeming confused that he would actually leave his room, as that is something he didn't do too often.  
"I just wanted a break from studying. I got bored." Spirit's eyes widened a little bit.  
"You got bored of studying? And came out here? Holy crap it's the apocolypse." Stein sent him a very light glare, one that wasn't meant to do much.  
"I can't stay in there forever."  
"That is very true, Stein. It isn't normal for a kid to stay in their room all day. It may be if they live with their parents, but not their weapon partner."  
"I am just not much of a people person."  
"You've got that right." Stein looked over at Spirit, and thought of the nightmare. He could never do that to him. It just wasn't right. He knew how terrible it was when his father did it; he didn't want him to go through that, too.  
Then the insane part of him started to kick in. What if I did? What would really happen? Why not take advantage of having a fresh human body available? You're running out of animals do tear into anyway. What could it hurt?  
He instantly shook his head, trying to clear those thoughts out of his mind. They started to creep back, so he just tried harder. They were gone, so he just looked at the TV. Spirit had been watching a channel that had music videos on it. He was listening to rock music, which was what he listened to most often. Some things he listened to could almost be considered metal or alternative, but mainly rock.  
Stein didn't really understand why he liked music so much, but he too liked it sometimes. Sometimes he would be in his room dissecting something, and his partner would have his stereos turned up to a very loud volume. He could hear it coming into his room, and actually didn't mind. It was sort of nice.  
Stein actually got into it a bit, and stayed with Spirit for an hour and a half. He was surprised that so much time had passed, but in a sense, he didn't mind. He never did that stuff, and it was something different for a change. At the end of one video, the insane thought of dissecting the red head came floating back, so he got up.  
"Where are you going?" Spirit seemed confused by him suddenly getting up.  
"I need to go to my room. I have to study something." He didn't really know what he was going to study, he just didn't want to be there.  
"Okay. We need to do this again sometime."  
"Yeah, we do. Maybe later we can." Stein and Spirit honestly liked sitting there together. They had even talked a bit and joked around. It was weird to see Stein be so normal, so it was always welcome when it happened, which was pretty rare.  
He went into his room, shutting and locking the door behind him. He started to think.  
"I can't do that. It would be wrong of me, sick even." His thoughts switched over. "How would it be sick? It would be fun. You know you want to." They switched once again. "I know that I want to... but I just couldn't. I can't betray his trust like that, he has actually been more tolerable lately. I can't ruin that. It's wrong, plain and simple."  
He was almost having a fight with himself. The sane and insane parts trying to win over the other, to get what they want and need. He has always tried his best not to follow the insane side since basically only bad things happend when he did. He enjoyed them, but they were still bad.  
He got himself to stop fighting, and went over to his desk. He directed his thoughts to school, and it stayed that way for the remainder of the afternoon.  
Marie sat in her room, listening to music as she danced around holding a notebook. She too was studying like Stein, and listening to music like Spirit. The difference was that she liked pop, not rock. She was bouncing around her room, reading what she had wrote down a couple weeks ago.  
She always had to be doing something else when she studied, and this usually ended up being it. She was actually fairly good at studying and got good grades. This made her parents happy, they never really had to badger her to do her work; they just kind of expected her to.  
She thought about Stein and how she thought he was cute, and fell back plopping onto her bed. She let out a loud sigh, wondering why he wouldn't just be more open with people, more specifically her. She just thought he was aborable, kind, and amazing.  
He really was kind to her. He always helped her carry stuff, helped her with school work, walked with her to different classes they had together. He would always listen to her complain about different things, talk about her emotions, and listen to her rant about the stuff she read about in her magazines.  
She was a classic girl, but for some reason he put up with it. It was because she was so nice to him, she thought. And it really was. No other girl treated him that way, and since she wasn't a total snob, that made her a lot more tolerable than others.  
Kami was laying on her stomach on her bed, propped up by her elbows. She had her legs crossed and bent, almost touching her back. She was reading a magazine, also listening to pop. She was reading about different hair styles, and thinking about what she and Spirit had done last night.  
This made her smile, and then she wished she was with Spirit again. She just loved being around him. They had been dating for a long time now and were very close, she could tell him anything. She trusted him, and he never actually did tell people her secrets, just like promised. Considering the fact that he was always with other girls, that was a little hard to believe.  
She didn't know this, though. She was comletely oblivious, and never suspected a thing. He was lucky for that, for if she were to find out, she would flip out on him. There is no way they would date anymore, and both of them would be crushed. They would really miss each other.  
When he was just about done studying, he heard someone knock on his door. It was Spirit, of course. Since they were the only people that lived in that house, he didn't even have to use soul perception.  
He got up and walked to his door, unlocking it once he got there.  
"When's dinner going to be ready?" This was a question that Stein got asked most evenings, and this was basically his signal to start making dinner. He never really got hungry, so it was up to Spirit.  
"It won't be long. I will get started in a couple minutes."  
"Okay, thanks," Spirit said this, leaving Stein after he finished.  
Stein didn't bother shutting his door since he would need to open it in a minute anyway. He went over to his desk and put away all of his school stuff for the day. He decided after dinner he could do a dissection or two.  
He went out of his room and into the kitchen, and started to make dinner. Like mentioned before, he learned how to cook as a kid. Since Spirit never had to, he just had Stein do it. It would honestly be the easier thing to do, and he didn't really mind. Since he never slept really, it's not like he didn't have the time for it.  
He didn't usually study as much as he has been lately, but the super written exam is on Monday, so he had to be ready for it.  
After 30 minutes, dinner was ready and Spirit was out at the table with Stein. Spirit did most of the talking, Stein did most of the listening, and soon they were done. Towards the end, Stein started to get the thoughts of dissecting his parnter again.  
He tried his best to ignore them, but each time the thought entered his mind, it was harder to block it out. He just left Spirit again, leaving him to do the dishes like always. They thought it was fair if Stein cooked and Spirit cleaned up; which, in all honesty, it really was.  
He got to his room, and instead of dissecting his parnter he got a nice, squirmy bird. For some reason, he prefered them to most animals. He didn't really know why, he just did.  
He started cutting into the animal, but the thought kept creeping from the back of his mind no matter how much he pushed it back. This was starting to irritate him. He really needed to do something about this. He couldn't stand it. He had to think of something.  
He let out his frustration by mauling the bird, slaughtering it completely. He honestly enjoyed that, but the clean up was rather boring in comparison. He didn't take long, though, since he was used to it by now.  
He looked in the notebook he had for his current experiments, and started working on them a bit. The whole time throughout, he kept getting ideas for new ones, and new things kept popping up that he would have to test for his current one to be complete. He knew this one would take a while, but he didn't really care. He liked doing this.  
He experimented and tested for a few hours, actually making a good amount of progress. Forget what was said earlier; he doesn't just like doing this, he loved it. He could work for days and days on end without running out of things to test. So he worked a little more, feeling a strong want to learn more.  
He finally finished, and put everything away, back to their proper place. He sat down in his chair the wrong way, resting his arms on the back of the chair. He sat his forhead down on it as well, so now his face was buried. He started thinking. And thinking. He needed something. His thoughts were directed to something else.  
Everything felt... weird. There was a sound of a thick liquid dripping, dripping, and dripping more. He lifted his head to see what it was, when a drop of the thick substance dropped onto his head. He looked up, seeing that the ceiling was practically melting away.  
It was melting, turning into liquid, dripping down. He looked at the walls, and they started to do the same thing. Next his bed, then his desk, then his bookshelf. His chair started to melt away, so he jumped off and back from it, looking at it half in amazement.  
Everything was blending together, creating a large blob of whatever you want to call it. He stood there, and just watched it all around him. He did nothing else but just stare at it, at least he thought that. In reality he was still sitting in his chair with his head buried.  
He sat like that for at least a good hour or two. Then before he knew it, he had his fingers wrapped tightly around his scalpel. He needed it. He had to. There was nothing else that he wanted. He was free to be used. Why not? He laughed a little bit.  
It's fine. I know it. I can. I need to.  
He started charging down the hall, knife in hand, a nice and wide grin painted on his face.  
Spirit laid sleeping in his bed, dreaming about his precious Kami. He was totally oblivious. This is perfect. Why did I not think of it sooner?  
He got to his partner's bedroom, and opened the door as quietly as possible. He made sure that all of the lights were off outside of the room. He could hear someone.  
"Come on. Do it already. This is what you need. You want it, I know you do." He let out a bit of quiet, almost silent laughter as he approached the bed. He held out his knife, and stared at it for a minute.  
"What are you waiting for. DO IT!" He hesitated, but soon his knife was lowering towards the boy.  
He was less than an inch away from his skin, when he realized what he was doing. He saw the knife in his hand, realizing what he was about to do. He instantly slipped the scalpel into his pocket, and shook a little. He backed out of the room, then walked back to his room at a rather fast pace.  
He quickly slammed the door shut, making sure he locked it. He started pacing back and forth in his room, thoughts and fear racing.  
How did that happen? How did I get that close to him without even realizing it? Oh yeah, the madness, that's right. I need to figure out something. Something bad will happen if I don't.  
Quickly his mind started working, trying to come up with something he could do to get that thought out of his mind. He couldn't have it floating around him constantly, he just couldn't. He thought, and thought, and thought.  
He had been writing stuff down in different notebooks as a way to physically look at his thoughts, a way to plan stuff out. He organized his thoughts, had ideas, threw out some, saved others. He would think, would figure out something, but one thing would make him realize that it wouldn't quite work.  
This would have to work perfectly. It had to be guaranteed to stop the thoughts that were so... wrong. He almost had it, but then one minor thing crushed his new hope.  
He almost had it again, but then lost it multiple times throughout multiple hours. He finally got it. That was it! This had to work.  
He started making the thing he would need for his new experiment, the experiment that had to have postive results. It just had to. He worked, and worked on his new idea. He was progressing very fastly, half running on excitement, the other half coming from the fear of knowing how little time he had to work it out. He had no time to waste.  
After a couple hours of trial and error, he had it done. It was complete. Now it was time to figure out how to use it. This is the fun part.

**Like I said Voltage-Fox, I AM using that nightmare! And I am going to get started on the next chapter tomorrow night. I wonder what he could be up to...? HAHA! You guys have to wait to find out!**


	9. A Bit Drowsy

**Hmm... I tried my best to make this detailed. It seemed like it was when I was writing it, at least. I also tried to work on this as much as possible, but lately I have just been doing a little more than usual. I really want to make some progress on this on the week that I have a 4 day week end, so I might have this next one done a littler faster. I tried to incorporate Spirit and Kami in this one a little more, which is something I think some people will like. **

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 9 A Bit Drowsy

Stein sat on the floor of his bathroom with a large mirror propped in front of him. He would have been standing, but the pain was so great that his knees would have just gave way. He was dazed from a lack of sleep, and the pounding, stinging pain. The madness that was mixed in with that didn't help much.

There was so much blood everywhere; it was just completely covering the floor. He didn't mind, though. He was used to the sight of blood, and if anything, he liked to see it. This time was different, though. It was his own blood.

He had never actually experimented on himself before, so this was fairly new to him. This was his first time, and it had to be a successful one. With what he was doing, failure could result in the death of himself or someone else.

He could tell that he was on the verge of passing out, but he pushed to stay conscious. He picked up the scalpel that was completely covered in blood, including the handle, which he had recently dropped from losing his grip; he was fairly weak at this point, so he was having trouble holding stuff.

He was almost done, though, and he could not have been any more thankful for that than actually being done. The pain afterward will most likely be just as bad, but not _this_ much. It can't be. If it is, oh dear Death. Let's just hope.

It was almost in place, which had taken several tries to do. He couldn't quite get it, for a sharp pain running through your entire body is sure to distract you to at least some degree; and it won't be much easier to preform detailed procedures like he was. Not many kids would even half the slightest clue what was even going on, let alone be able to carry it out on their own without out the aid of another person.

_Drop._ _Drop. _If only there wasn't so much blood dripping to the ground. The sight of it just reminded him of what was going on and intensified the pain from concentrating on it. If he wasn't thinking about it, it wouldn't be nearly as bad.

He was making an incision, and the scalpel just about slipped out of his hands from being covered in the red liquid. Let's just say that if it would have slipped, this story would not continue on forth. He shook. Sat for a minute and let his nerves settle. Then he tried again. It didn't slip.

It was in place. Now he just had to rearrange the organ so everything would work properly, as right now the current positioning of it made it so he was partially paralyzed. He couldn't move his legs or feet or toes. Like mentioned before, he really couldn't be standing for this.

He started to arrange it to the proper form, and if this didn't work either, he wouldn't be able to walk anymore. He finished, and just had to try moving. He was a little scared of what would happen next. Oh Death, please let it work. He wiggled his toes, then circled his feet and next moved his legs. It worked.

This kid is a genius. Most kids wouldn't be in their bathroom at 6:27 on a Sunday morning, making themselves paralyzed, and basically preforming an operation on themselves. No. They would be lying in bed sleeping, dreaming. Even if Stein was asleep, he still wouldn't be like them.

The pain that came when rearranging things was excruciating; it was beyond belief. He even screamed sometimes, and the rest of the time he had to try his best not to. He had tears in his eyes, some running down his face. They were those involuntary tears you get at times, the ones that only a few certain things caused.

A few drops of blood fell to the floor again, making an audible _drop_ when doing so. He grabbed the large cotton ball and cleaned some of the blood out of the area, wincing in pain when the cotton touched him. It hurt so badly. He wouldn't have even bothered if it wasn't necessary.

Now that it was in place and he could move his legs again, he started double checking that everything else was in place, too. He knew how little concentration and focus he would have towards the end, so before he began he made a check list of things to do. It was taped to the upper left corner of the huge mirror.

Everything went blurry. The scalpel dropped to the ground, making a loud clinging noise when it hit the tile. He knew why he couldn't see properly; his consciousness was slipping again. He just tried to keep himself up, and waited for a few minutes. It would be very risky if he were to continue working like this, even deadly, so he had to wait until he knew he was going to remain conscious.

His vision started to clear up, so he looked in through the mirror, seeing drops of blood run down his face. He grabbed a cotton ball and wiped it off, making sure to get it all and also clean up the area it was overflowing from. It was painful, yet again. He looked at himself one final time before picking the scalpel up off the floor, sighing as he did so.

He started working again, and after many winces, many cotton balls, and struggles to remain conscious, he put the scalpel down; it was by choice this time, though. He could start to finish up, and would be done very soon.

So he could see how long it was taking him to progress through the different procedures, which he would write down and record later, he stuck a clock next to the mirror. 7:25 A.M. Spirit wouldn't be up for, at least, another couple hours; which was indeed a very good thing.

He felt blood run down his face again as he reached down for the thirtieth cotton ball. He wiped it up, then moved to the source of the blood. As he started cleaning it out, yet another time, he felt the madness come over him. He poked the organ, letting a giggle out while he winced. From the pain, the madness quickly scurried away and let Stein to his business.

He finished cleaning out the area of the wonderful organ, and then got ready to close it up. He got the needle and sutures ready, and started to stitch everything up.

He felt the thread pull through the tissue, in and out, then through another set of tissue, in and out. In and out. In and out. The feeling was weird. He hadn't been conscious the last time there was thread being pulled through his body, so he didn't know what it actually felt like. It was so weird, but he just kept going on.

He grabbed another cotton ball and cleaned up some of the little blood that was coming out of the stitched areas, and a lot from the open incisions. He continued putting in more sutures, feeling how he had to tug at the needle sometimes to get it through. 7:49 A.M.

He wiped up the blood that ran down his face another time, putting the used and tainted cotton ball in the large pile that sat on his right. He also looked at the blood that was on the floor. It was starting to dry now.

He grabbed the bone that had been lying in a tray since 5:43 A.M., and put it back where it belonged. He positioned another layer of tissue, feeling his consciousness threaten to slip again. Everything went blurry, and blackness crept into the corner of his eyes. He sat there for a few minutes with his hand still holding the tissue in place, wincing from the contact of it with his hand.

His vision started to clear up, but went blurry again. He thought for sure he would slip, that he would be out cold. He just waited a little longer for blackness to overtake him, but his vision started to clear, and soon he was working again.

He cleaned up more blood, pulled more sutures through, and saw that it was almost 8:00; he would need to hurry. He went to pull through the last suture for that layer, and it got a little stuck. He had to tug harder than usual, and that sent a shock of pain through him. He clenched his teeth and continued pulling the thread through.

He wiped more blood off his face, another drop falling to the ground as he did so. He was to the last layer: skin. He had to be fairly quick with this one, but he also had to be precise as to prevent the scar from being any worse than it had to be.

He felt it pull smoothly through his skin, and it hurt a lot less than the tissue had. But, nevertheless, it was still fairly excruciating. He finished rather quickly in comparison. He wiped up the remaining blood, feeling his consciousness start to go, once again.

He rested his back against the wall, closing his eyes as he did so. He waited for a second and opened his eyes, looking into the mirror. He saw one final drop of blood roll down his face, but he waited a second before attending to it. He just looked at himself and stared, then looked at the clock. 8:34.

He cleaned the blood off his cheek and set the cotton down on the large pile, making that a total of fifty-five. He took his now repulsive looking scalpel, grabbed a towel and wiped it off. He would need to thoroughly clean it later, but he couldn't do that now. He next used the towel to wipe the sweat off his face, wincing at the feeling of the skin that was joined by sutures pull slightly.

He could already tell, it would be very sore for a while. That didn't matter though; what matters is if he just wasted hours of his time cutting, wiping, wincing, and stitching, all for nothing. He would need to test it. He started feeling anxious. What if it didn't work? What then?

He started to feel a slight wave of madness go over him. This would be the perfect time to try it. He moved his hand up, hesitating slightly. He paused for a second. He felt the wavelength increase slightly, so he went ahead.

He reached up all of the way, grabbed ahold of the cold metal. He felt the shape in his hands; it fit practically perfectly for the size of his hands. He held on for a few seconds, then twisted his wrist. As he did that, the metal object turned with it. He turned it one, two, three times until at the end of the third time it clicked in place, making a louder _click_ than it did the other times.

He instantly felt the madness clear up, and along with that his thoughts became clearer as well. It had worked. It felt bizarre, but it had worked. He was astonished and relieved at the same time. He just relaxed against the wall, feeling slightly dizzy. He closed his eyes again and rested there for about five minutes, feeling just how clear everything was. This would work. He knew it.

He started thinking about what Spirit would say, Marie, Kami, and his teachers as well; about what Lord Death would have done if he would have happened to appear in the mirror when his skull was open and he was moving his brain around. That wouldn't have ended well.

He sat up from the wall, seeing that it was now 8:45 exactly. Spirit would be up at any time now. He grabbed all of the bloody cotton balls and threw them out, stumbling slightly because he was still very weak from it all. He stumbled out of the room, finally getting to his room. Once he got there he sat down at his desk and grabbed a few pieces of paper and a black marker that he had.

He made two signs. The first one was to go on the bathroom door, and said: _Spirit, do not enter the bathroom. There is a rather large mess in there, and I promise I will clean it up later. I just feel that you would rather not see it._

The second sign was to go on Stein's door, and said: _Do not try to wake me up. I am going to be sleeping for a few hours due to previous experiments, and I will be out to make dinner when I wake up._

At the end of the last sign, his writing wasn't neat like it always was since he was getting dizzy again. The period wasn't exactly a dot, as it was more of a long dash going across the page.

He sat with his head down on his desk for a minute, and then shakily got to his feet. He grabbed a thing of tape and got two pieces, one being for each sign. He stumbled over to his door and hung the sign up half-crooked. He next got over to the bathroom door, shut it, and hung the sign up as well as he could. He lazily got back to his room, grabbing the anesthetic that lay on his desk that he had prepared earlier.

He made it before he began, knowing that it would be impossible for him to do to such a thing afterwards. He wanted to use anesthetics to make sure that he got some sleep, as it is very important after something like this, especially considering he did all of the procedures running on absolutely no sleep.

After properly administering the anesthetic, he dropped into bed, and pulled the covers up. He was asleep within seconds after closing his eyes. That never happened. Ever.

He laid there out cold for about twenty minutes before Spirit got up. He figured Stein would be in his room, so he just went to the living room to watch some TV. He was about halfway through the episode he was watching, and he felt like he had to go to the bathroom. So he got up and walked over to the room, seeing the sign when he got there.

He thought, "What's this?" and pulled it off the door to read it. He read the sign and shook his head, and started to push the door open. He started speaking aloud to himself, saying, "How bad could it-" He got halfway through his sentence when he saw everything still there except for the cotton balls that were now thrown away.

There was blood splashed all over the mirror, a bloody and disgusting scalpel on the floor, a bloody needle and other tools, along with the fact that the floor was completely stained with blood. There was blood _everywhere_. He could even see footprints made by blood.

He started gagging, and ran to the closest place that he could throw up that _wasn't _in the bathroom. He threw up a bit; then when he finally finished, he walked over to the bathroom and, looking away, shut the door. He then went over to Stein's room to ask him what that was about.

He knew how he was affected by the madness, so who knows what could have possibly gone wrong in there. He was just naturally worried that he wasn't okay. He got to his partner's door, and saw another sign on it. He tore that one down too, reading it after.

He now knew that he had been cutting into himself, but what he didn't know was how bad it was. He shook his head and said, "Damn it, Stein," before opening the door.

Stein was so tired that he never even bothered to lock the door once he got back, which really said something. The main reason why he wanted to see what was going on was because he said he would be up in time to make dinner; he never sleeps that late. It's just not something he does.

He opened the door and walked in. The first thing he saw was the open vial that lay on the boy's desk. He went over and picked it up, reading what was on the label. At the top it said 'ANESTHETICS' and below it was a bunch of long words that Spirit couldn't pronounce. So he turned to see Stein lying in bed.

The minute he saw his partner, his jaw dropped, eyes widened, and he dropped the vial. It shattered and he just stood there before jumping back screaming. It was almost like a delayed reaction kind of thing. Stein, of course, didn't wake up from this. He was out cold. Spirit got up off the floor and walked over to his partner, looking at him as if he were an alien.

He just looked, and tried to figure out what the heck that thing could possibly do. He was so shocked that he almost went to the bathroom in his room; don't forget, he still hadn't gone from earlier. He wanted to shake his partner over and over again to get him up. But at the same time he didn't want to touch him. He also knew that telling from the vial he had just broke, it wouldn't do him much good anyway.

He just looked and started wondering why he would even want to do that, but then he remembered he was an insane kid that loved science; I am not sure if there needs to be much more of a description than that. Spirit decided that since he wouldn't be up for a while he might as well just let him sleep and do something until he gets up.

"You're going to have some explaining to do," Spirit said this to the unconscious gray-haired boy, although his hair wasn't completely gray. It had quite a lot of blood staining it since he hadn't washed it out yet.

Spirit shook his head at his partner and went out of his room, shutting the door behind him. He remembered just how badly he had to go to the bathroom. There is no way he would even go into that bathroom, so that is out of the question. He needed somewhere to go unless he wants his pants to end up being that place. He thought of one possibility.

He quickly ran over to the nightstand that sat beside his desk and pulled out a sticky note. He grabbed a pen and wrote: _I had to go out to go to the bathroom because of that little mess you left me. If you wake up and I am gone, that is why. I will be back soon._ Next he took the note and ran back to Stein's room, sticking it on the boy's forehead before leaving.

He ran out of his room and out of the house, making his way to the nearest store. They had a restroom there, so he could just use that. The thing is that he has to get there in time. The fact of having to walk back in soiled pants was enough motivation to get him moving. Quickly he was at a convenient store. He walked at a fast pace back to the men's room and went.

He then went back out of the store, and walked this time. He just got to the side of the street when he saw a girl walking by. It was a girl that he had been flirting with the other day, and she seemed to have an interest in him. Of course, he had to stop and sweet talk the girl a bit before continuing home. The girl was about to beg him to date her by the time he was done. Like I said before, magic.

He started down their road, and he started thinking about Stein again. He could just imagine all of the looks he was going to get from it. They already thought he was weird before, and that was before he had a screw sticking through his head! He seriously had to ask the kid what he was thinking when he did that.. and how he did it as well. He didn't need fancy details, just a basic description.

He got to the house and opened the door, walking in as he did so. He shut the door and went to see if Stein was up yet or not; which, of course, he wasn't. He walked over and laughed at how he was sleeping with a sticky note on his forehead, especially when he started to snore a bit. He grabbed the sticky note and crumpled it up, throwing it at the trash can like a basketball after he did that. He made it in, and started quietly cheering for himself.

As he pumped his fist and whispered, "Spirit! Spirit! Spirit!" he walked out of his partner's room, shutting the door behind himself. He sat down and started to watch TV, but not long after that he thought about Kami. He decided that he would go visit and surprise her. He got up and went to make another note. It read: _I am going to see Kami, be back soon. _Then he stuck it to his unconscious forehead once again. He thought this was the best place to put it that would ensure that he read it. I mean, he would see it right when he wakes up.

He started down the road and walked down a couple more, feeling the a breeze blow his hair in his face. He just ran his hands through his hair and kept going. It was still fairly early in the day, but he was sure that Kami would be awake by now. She never really slept in late, so he didn't see any reason why she would all of the sudden.

He got to her road, her house now perceptible. He saw that her father was sitting out on her front porch. That was actually kind of nice since it would be easier to ask to come in that way. He always liked it when her parents would open the door rather than her, to be perfectly honest. This was because then he could make sure he was aloud to go see her. Much like when talking to Stein's mother, he liked to be polite with her parents.

As he walked up towards the porch, Kami's father looked up and said, "Hello, Spirit. How are you doing today?"

"I am going well, thank you for asking. How are you?"

"I am going fairly well myself."

"Glad to hear it. So.. uh, is Kami home?"

"Yeah, she's just in her room."

"Thank you, sir." After Spirit said this he went into her rather large house and went back to the girl's room. He walked in to see her sitting on her bed, painting her nails a light shade of blue. When she saw him she quickly sat the nail polish down on her nightstand and ran up to Spirit. She hugged him in a way as to be careful that she didn't mess up her nails, as they were not even close to being dry yet.

When she hugged him, she said, "What are you doing here?" Spirit smiled at how happy she was to see him. Then he responded.

"Well, I thought of you and figured I could come over and surprise you."

"Well, I am definitely surprised," she said this as she backed up a little bit, keeping her arms around him. She leaned in and gave him a kiss, then pulled away and walked back over to her bed. Spirit was happy about the affection he was getting; you could just tell by the look on his face.

"I guess it worked then," he said this, still being happy about everything.

She grabbed her nail polish and started painting her toenails. "Yep, sure did."

Spirit walked over to her bed and sat down at the end of it, watching what she was doing. He just liked being around her in general, and also liked to watch her do the girly stuff she does. He was glad that he had her and didn't want to lose her, even though he did constantly sweet talk other girls. She didn't want to lose him either, and was extremely happy with what they had.

"So how's the studying going?" Spirit asked this, keeping in mind the fact that the test was tomorrow. She shot him a look, and then responded.

"I'll be fine. I always do well. Besides, I have been studying more lately. How's the studying going for _you_?"

"Not so well. I swear, I have the attention span of a squirrel."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You always get a fairly decent score even without studying much."

"I guess. I just wish I could do more to prepare. If I do well without studying, just imagine what my score would be if I did."

"If you studied, you would be right behind Stein; I can almost guarantee it," Kami said this, using one of those light reassuring tones.

"I don't know about that. The kid is a genius." After he said this, he thought about Stein and the bathroom. Then he thought, "Yeah, some genius," to himself.

"Anyone would be a genius if all they did was study like he does." She finished painted her last toenail as she finished saying this, and screwed on the cap before sitting it back on her nightstand.

"He sure does study a lot. The kid serious locks himself in his room for hours straight every night, and studies for that exam like his life depends on it."

"He seems like he goes overboard with it; but if that's what he wants to do I'm certainly not going to argue with him about it. That scalpel of his freaks me out."

"I know. I don't get why he carries it everywhere he goes." After Spirit said this, he thought about the way his father looked with his, and then he thought of Stein's scalpel that now lay on the floor covered in blood. He shivered.

"That's something else I don't get about him. Half the time he doesn't even use the thing."

"I think he just likes it being near him."

"Probably," Kami said this as she used one of her magazines as a fan and waved it back and forth over her toenails to dry them.

Spirit had one of those cravings; not like Stein has, but a different kind. A craving for sex. He started thinking of how they could go about this since her father is home, then he thought of just bringing her to his house. Even if they had to sneak out from the back, they _would_ get there. It was still fairly early, so they didn't really need to rush. He just wanted it tonight.

"Hey Kami… I have an idea." She looked up at him, almost instantly knowing what the idea was just by the way he said it. He always had this way about him when he wanted to get her into bed; she was familiar with it by now.

"Oh yeah, let me hear it." So he started explaining.

While Spirit sat on Kami's bed, explaining what was to be done, Stein laid in bed. He still had the sticky note on his head. It would lift up and waver back and forth every time he would breathe out. At this point he was also snoring very loudly, which was unlike him. He had never slept this well, so it was actually kind of good for him. He sure was going to be sore when he woke up, though.

He still needed to record everything, but he would do that once he wakes up. He, of course, still had that huge mess to clean up as well. He still hadn't studied for the exam that was tomorrow. Maybe him getting so much sleep now is a good thing, for he has so much stuff to do that he might not even sleep tonight. On the other hand, he might make himself since he knows he needs it after an experiment like this.

The blood in his hair was more than dried at this time, and he is going to have a heck of a time trying to wash that out, while making sure to be careful about his head. The only downside to this is how careful he will have to be. Even though he wins fights with no problem, he still can't risk it. If he were to get in an accident, something very bad could happen.

He took in a large breath, the sticky note pulling against his face as he did so. He let a huge breath out, along with a very loud snore. This caused the note to push out more than usual, only to come right back down again.

"Alright, we can try it," Kami said this, having heard Spirit's entire plan.

"Saying try makes it seem like it's not going to go well. It'll go well, trust me."

They were going to spend the afternoon talking in Kami's room, making sure to wait until an appropriate to leave. The best time for this would be when football is on, as it is sure to keep her father busy while they climb out her window. Once he was watching football, they would climb out and walk to Spirit's house. There they would have dinner (which Spirit had suggested since in Stein's note he said he would be up to make dinner), then they could get down to business.

So they spent the rest of the afternoon talking just like they had planned, with a few kisses added in every now and then. Kami would complement on how well Spirit kissed, then he would say it was her that was the better kisser, and they would argue back and forth for multiple minutes. They actually used up some time doing this.

They could tell that her dad was watching football now since they could hear the sound of her dad yelling at the T.V. coming from the living room. Now that they knew he was busy, they opened her window. She had a little stepstool standing in front of it to make it easier to climb over the window sill.

First Spirit climbed out, and then he helped Kami get over and held her hand as she jumped from the ledge that was about three feet off the ground. After she landed, they just kept holding each other's hands and started walking down the road. Spirit loved doing this, although he didn't want to get caught and have her parents lose respect for him.

They soon got to Spirit's house, so he unlocked the door and held it open for Kami to go in. He shut it behind himself, seeing how she was looking around at the place. She did it every time she came over even though she was very familiar with how the place looked. Just a habit, he guessed. He thought of Stein and how he should be getting up in a little bit, as it was getting close to 5:30 now. He thought it would be funny to show her the sticky note on his forehead, which he intended to leave exactly where it was even though he was already home; and completely forgot about the thing that was now sticking through the boy's skull.

He brought Kami over to his room, making her be quiet just in case he was starting to wake up. He looked first just to see what he was doing, and he was still lying there snoring. He realized then that she would see, but he figured it was better now when he didn't know she was looking, that way she could stare and ponder it all she wanted to.

She crept around the corner, quietly laughing when she saw the note on his head, but quickly jumped and let out a little yelp when she saw the thing that was going through it. Spirit hushed her, and she pulled him away from the room.

"What is that?" She whispered in those kinds of whispers that are a mix of whispering and yelling.

"I don't even know, to be perfectly honest." Spirit used his regular talking voice, so she did that too from that point on.

"How do you not know? You live with him, for Death's sake!"

"I woke up this morning and had to go to the bathroom," he started explaining, "and when I got there, there was a sign on the door. It said to not come in since there was a mess, but I didn't listen and went in anyway."

"What was so bad about it?"

"That's exactly what I said. But trust me, it's bad. There is literally blood everywhere." As he said the last sentence Kami started walking over to the bathroom.

"Oh come on, you're exaggerating." She started pushing the door open, and she had the exact same reaction as Spirit did. When she was done throwing up, Spirit finished his story.

"After I was done being sick, I went to Stein's room to ask him about it and saw a note on his door as well when I got there. It said that he was going to be sleeping for a while due to an experiment. Naturally, from seeing the blood and reading the sign on Stein's door, I had to see what he had done. I opened the door and when I came in I saw that."

"That is so weird.. Do you know what it's even supposed to do?" She seemed to be thinking of what the answer could be, which is expected.

"I have no clue. I had no idea he was even going to do anything to himself. I am definitely going to ask him about when he wakes up, though." At this point they were back at Stein's room, and Kami was just staring, questions of all sorts floating through her mind. Stein started to move. His hands started to move up towards his face, but his eyes were still closed. Kami and Spirit instantly sprinted out of there as quietly as they could.

Stein said, "Spirit?" as he grabbed the sticky note off his head. He opened his eyes and read: _I am going to see Kami, be back soon. _He though he was still gone, so he just laid there for a bit. He was still very drowsy and he was very relaxed, as the anesthetics had not worn out completely yet. He felt a stinging around where the incisions had been made, that was dulled by his drowsiness. He could already tell, this was not going to feel very pleasant. He remembered everything he had to do, but still did not get up quite yet. He almost fell asleep a few times while lying there, and jerked away when he would realize it.

Before he could hear something, but it wasn't nearly clear enough to tell what it was. Now he was starting to be able to pick out voices, and realized that Kami was now over here. He wanted to get up and shut his door, but he was too lazy to. He thought of testing it out again, so he did. He reached up and turned it three times, but this time it didn't click on the third turn. So he started again, and after the fifth it did it. He could start to feel his drowsiness start to become less severe, and things seemed clearer than before.

He started to sit up, and instantly felt his head start to throb. He stood up and slowly and lazily walked over to his desk. He slouched down in his chair and started recording everything; just like he planned he would do after waking up. He soon finished with that and remembered the bathroom; oh Death was it a mess.

He got up and sauntered to the bathroom, ignoring how Kami and Spirit were laughing at him for being so tired and looking so sluggish. It's something they didn't see from him often, and it looked kind of funny. Once he got to the bathroom, he opened the door and squeezed his eyes shut once seeing everything. It was one of those moments where you could have face palmed yourself. He walked in and looked at everything, wanting to just curl up in the hall and sleep some more. Instead he cleaned everything up.

He first grabbed his check list off the mirror and threw that out, then wiped the blood off the same mirror. Next he grabbed all of his tools and equipment and dragged himself back to his room. He sat them down at the little place of his room where all of these things were kept, then went to take care of the floor. He grabbed a brush and the proper cleaning chemicals and started scrubbing the floor.

On several occasions he found himself starting to fall asleep, so he knew he would need to sleep more when he was done. After about twenty-five minutes of scrubbing, he finally got all of it off. He put the stuff away as quickly as he could, having his bed on his mind the entire time.

He went back to his room, hearing more laughter come from the couple that was now sitting on the couch. His eyelids felt so heavy, and his limbs felt like lead. He needed to finish cleaning his tools and get to bed. So that's exactly what he did. He wiped everything off very thoroughly; making sure it all had a nice shine to it. His tools were the only thing he would spend time on right now. When he got to his scalpel, he made sure he cleaned it best of all.

He put everything in their proper place, and then went over to his door. He shut it, but didn't feel like locking it. He couldn't make dinner now, as it would be very likely that he would end up catching something on fire. Spirit and Kami didn't exactly mind; now they could get started sooner. Stein was just glad to be getting back in his bed. His bed had never felt softer than it did at that moment. To him it was seriously heaven.

Quickly his eyes were shut, and he was out cold once again. He started to snore a lot quicker than last time, and when Spirit and Kami could even hear it through his shut door, they knew the fun could begin.

They went back to Spirit's room, and shut the door behind them. The entire way in Spirit was walking forward with his hands around her hips and she was walking backwards with her arms resting on his shoulders, going loosely around his neck. They got to the bed and they were laying down when Kami said, "I love you, Spirit."

Spirit said, "I love you, too." Then they started, and did not stop for quite some time, actually.

In three hours, Stein had begun to wake up again. This time he was less drowsy than before, but his head was just as sore if not worse. It just kept pounding and throbbing, and it felt like it was stinging, too. He turned the screw again, but this time it took four times; one less than the last time. When he did this, he was almost fully awake. He decided that he was aware enough that he could go make dinner. But since he knew Spirit and Kami were basically alone in the house while he slept, he figured they would do their favorite activity. He used soul perception, and his suspicion was correct.

He went out to the kitchen, still walking a little lazily; it still wasn't as bad as it was before. He started to make dinner, and had everything set out when Spirit and Kami came out of the room, finally. He sat down the large bowl that had spaghetti in it, the spaghetti his mom used to make when he still lived with his family. As he did this he looked up at the couple, and saw the look of what looked like suspicion on their face.

Stein just ignored it and sat down in his chair that he had placed there earlier when he had begun making dinner, following was Spirit and Kami. They basically had assigned seats, as every time Kami was over they sat in the same place at the rectangular table. Stein sat at the one end of the width of the table, while Spirit and Kami sat next to each other on the length side of the table.

They got their food, and then there was a long period of silence. It was a rather awkward one; you could just feel it in the air. They were all pretty tense too, almost anxious. They were like this for what felt to be an hour but was actually five minutes, until Spirit finally said something.

"Stein?" Spirit said this as he looked up at his meister, seeing how Stein was kind of trying to avoid looking at him. He really didn't want to have to explain it, as this was certainly not something that needed to be explained often.

"Hm?" Stein said this as he continued looking down at his plate. He tried to act confused, though he already knew what it was about. There was no way it was something else, for it would be very weird of Spirit to not have any questions.

"What exactly does... it... do?" He said this looking at the screw, trying to think of how it could possibly be in there, what it could do, and what possessed Stein to do such a thing. There was a short silence until Stein looked up at his partner to respond.

"It just helps me think, clears the madness." That was true. That's exactly what it did. But what Spirit didn't know was that he had really done it for him. He didn't like thinking that Spirit was in danger of his own partner, that he could possibly do something to him at any given time. He had said it in a way that made it sound as if he thought it was no big deal, which in a way surprised Spirit. But on the other hand, he was used to him treating things that way due to his lack of emotion.

"Oh… How did you do it?" Spirit said this, Kami following him after.

"Yeah, how exactly did you do that?" There was genuine curiosity in their voice, but Stein really didn't have much of an answer for them.

"I am not really sure if you guys would like to hear it. There would be a lot of terms and words that you would not understand, so in the end you may very well end up more confused than when you started off." He said this in a voice that showed that he was still a little tired. He was going to want to sleep more after dinner, but he still needed to study since the exam is tomorrow; which is also a reason why he should sleep, so he doesn't fall asleep when taking the exam. It was something that could go either way.

"Oh, then maybe you better not explain it," said Spirit. He also would have asked why he did it, but the fact that it helped with the madness was basically an explanation to that as well as to what it did.

They were silent for a bit, and then Spirit and Kami started talking to each other. They talked for about five minutes, and at this point they were really into the conversation, not noticing what was going on around them. Stein felt the madness wavelengths increase, and the thought that was even disturbing to him crossed his mind. Looks like he would get to test it out again.

He turned it three times, a final and louder _click_ coming at the end. He could instantly hear the noise in his head get quieter, and feel the wavelengths start to retreat. When they heard it, they were quickly draw from their conversation, and Kami jumped a little. Spirit flinched and made a face that looked as if he was wincing. A slight smirk formed on Stein's face when he saw how they had reacted to it.

"Doesn't that hurt?" Spirit asked this, sounding almost concerned about it. Kami just had this kind of look on her face, one that was almost indescribable.

"As of now, yes. Once everything has healed it won't anymore," he said this in a very simple tone, relieving Spirit and Kami slightly. This delighted Stein; not that they were relieved, but because his experiment had been a success and he had got a reaction from Spirit and Kami when proving so. He couldn't wait to see how everyone else would react. He wasn't looking forward to the stares, but the looks of horror when he turned the screw would certainly be entertaining.

They were in silence for the rest of dinner, then Stein wheeled over and brought his plate over to the sink when he finished. He was feeling more awake now, so he figured he actually would study. He left the couple that was now talking about him, and went into his room. Shut his door, and rolled over to his desk. He pulled out a notebook that had material he was studying at the academy in it, then the notebook he had for his latest experiment.

He started looking over the notes for school, and shortly after he started getting more tired. It was natural for him to get tired when just sitting and reading notes, after having basically performed surgery on himself. He started having trouble keeping his eyes open, not matter how hard he tried. His eyes shut again, and his head started to slowly tip down, but then it snapped back up and he woke up.

He started reading again, but then his eyes started closing. His head fell down onto his desk, and he woke up when it hit the surface of it. He knew he would fall asleep soon, but he still wanted to try to get as much done as possible, being a workaholic as usual.

He actually stayed up longer this time and started writing down observations about his experiment, but before long he was asleep with his head rested on his desk. He had his arms hanging down by his side with a pen on the floor below them, and his feet tucked under his chair. He started snoring quietly, and he was out cold once more.

Kami finally left to sneak back into her room, and Spirit went to go see what Stein was doing. He opened the door that he had forgot to lock again, and saw him with his head down on the desk sleeping. He walked over to put the notebooks away for him, and first picked up the one for school. He closed it and stuck it back in the proper place on his shelf. Next he picked up the one for his experiment, and decided to read it to see exactly what this was about.

Stein had written down the effects of the last time he tested it out, and he read what he had wrote. He also saw some of the procedures that he had to do to get it in place, and he winced at the thought of it. He really had respect for this kid's tolerance of pain. He flipped to one of the first pages in the notebook, and saw that he had wrote down the reasoning and planning out of the experiment.

That's what he wanted to know most of all, so he started reading through. He read: _I must find a way to clear my thoughts. I also need some way for the madness to be cleared up. I cannot have the thought of my recent nightmare hanging over me constantly, as it could result in something terrible. Just tonight I learned how dangerous it is, and how lucky I am that I didn't get any closer to him. I have to get this thought out of my head, no matter what it takes. I can't dissect Spirit._

When he read the last sentence, shivers ran down his spine. His heart started pounding, and he could feel his pulse start to race. He looked down at the notebook as, aloud to himself, he said, "He did this for my safety?"

He was more than shocked. He quickly shut the notebook and put it back, then looked down at Stein. He could see sutures in a place where his long hair wasn't covering his skin, and he got a little tenser than before. He just walked out of the room and into his, still taking in what he had just learned. He never figured he would do that, as he is a more distant kind of person; the kind of person that wouldn't go through that much trouble for someone else.

Spirit had also seen something unsettling when he was reading through the procedures. He saw that he could have ended up killing himself. He put his own life in that kind of risk; just to _try_ to prevent Spirit's from being in danger. There was that possibility that it wouldn't have worked, but he tried anyway.

Spirit laid down in his already messed up bed, and just looked up at the ceiling. Right then he knew that he had the best partner he could ever imagine having. He knew that if they were to ever get into trouble on a mission, he would try his best to get them out of it. He knew that he would never regret the day when him and Stein were in the cafeteria and he asked him to be his partner.

**I don't have much of anything to say but you better review this. If you don't, I will have to go all Franken style on you, and I am fairly certain you would not like it... Anyway, I will get this next one done soon.**


	10. The Looming Madness

**Sorry for being so damn lazy with this one... I actually got over 7,000 words of this chapter done yesterday. The ending went WAY different than I thought it would.. But it's too beautiful to change, even if it does leave me at an awkward spot. I seriously hope you guys are as thrilled by it as I am.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 10 The Looming Madness

Stein had slept through the entire night sitting at his desk. It was starting to get close to the time that he would need to be up, and he started moving a bit. He turned his head so the other side was down on the desk, and at the same time he brought his arm up to itch his nose. He was still half asleep, so when he was done he just let his arm drop to his side. When he did this, his arm had fallen fast enough that it caused him to turn over. With that, his chair went flying from under him, and he fell onto his back on the floor.

He layed sprawled out on the floor, now completely awake from hitting his back so hard. He rolled over a little, and brought his hand to his back and rubbed it a few times before he looked up at his clock. He saw that it was 7:00 A.M. He quickly got up off the floor and went to the bathroom to get ready, opening Spirit's door and yelling at him to get up as he went by.

Spirit started mumbling as he rolled over in bed, pulling his covers over his head in an attempt to ignore the fact that he had to be up to take the exam. Stein, on the other hand, definitely did not want to ignore this. He brushed his teeth and did all of the things he needed to do in order to get ready, then went back into his room. He saw that it was now 7:10, and Spirit still wasn't up.

He went back to his partner's room and yelled at him to get up, earning more mumbles and groaning noises. He went back to his room to grab his scalpel, hoping he could scare him awake. He got to the corner of his room that had all of his equipment, and grabbed the scalpel, seeing a small beam of light hit it.

He ran back to his parnter's room and got up to his bed. He got over top of the boy, who was now laying on his stomach, and put the dull side of the blade on his neck. Spirit felt the cold metal touch his skin, but surpisingly he didn't react. He knew that Stein did this to get him up, so he wasn't too concerned.

After seeing the way Spirit reacted to this, he went back to his room and put the scalpel in his pocket. He opened a drawer that was full of chemicals and syringes, then grabbed the particular one he was looking for. It was a stimulant that he could use to wake him up more efficiently.

He left his room once more, and started back down to the red head's room. He got there, seeing he had turned over onto his side. He went right up to him and held out the syringe.

"Don't make me inject you with this, Spirit," he said this with a serious tone to his voice, holding out the needle towards the boy. Spirit heard what he had said, and his eyes shot open. He turned to face Stein, seeing just how close he was to him with that thing. His eyes widened and he jumped back, going so far that he fell out of his bed.

"At least I am on the opposite side of him now," he thought.

He was tangled in his comforter, trying to catch his breath. Stein had a slight smirk on his face as he said, "Good," and slipped the syringe into his pocket, walking out of Spirit's room. He sat there for a minute until his heart rate when back to normal; then untangled himself from his covers and threw them onto his bed when he was finally out of them.

He started getting ready, and saw that it was actually 7:20. He hurried as fast as he could, finishing in five minutes.

Stein was starting to get rather impatient, and was about to threaten him again; but he saw his partner come out to the living room, now ready to go. Spirit had to catch his breath a bit, yet again, because he had been going so fast.

"Ready to do some running?" Stein said this to Spirit, earning a groan.

"Yeah," Spirit said this in a whining kind of tone, rolling his eyes a bit after.

"It's not my fault you wouldn't get up."

"Whatever, let's just get going if you're in such a hurry."

With that, they both started running, basically as fast as they could. Luckily, they had been training for a while, so they were a lot faster than the time they raced each other in the woods; they could also run a lot farther than before.

They were at the end of their road, and turned onto the next. Spirit looked up at one of the houses, seeing that the owner was looking out at them, and almost fainted when they saw Stein. He then remembered that people would be giving his partner weird looks all day, and that he would probably go around scaring people by turning the screw.

They started getting closer to the academy, and it was starting to become visible. The second Stein saw the building, he remembered what Spirit had thought of a bit ago. He knew that there was no way people would stop staring at him, no matter how much he glared at them. He figured he could just turn the screw to get them to leave him alone; that would definitely freak them out if the screw itself wasn't weird enough.

Since they were a little closer to the academy, they picked up their speed a bit more, and soon they were running up the stairs of the academy. They sprinted up the stairs, and opened the doors to see that everyone was just starting to go to class now. They had made it just in time.

They were told to go to Mrs. Smith's room to take the exam, so they started walking there as they caught their breath. Stein saw that no one was around them, so he didn't have to be stared at quite yet.

Miss. Parson was now a Smith, because she married a man who was in his late 30s. His name was Adam Smith, and for a while he was all she talked about. It was all the students could do to get her to shut up about him, and even then she would let things slip out about him.

They started getting closer to their room, and there had still been a couple kids out in the hall. They did a double take when seeing Stein, and their jaws dropped slightly. He just rolled his eyes and kept going, seeing them still staring out of the corner of his eyes. He knew this was going to plain out suck.

They got to Mrs. Smith's room, and walked in to see everyone in their seat already. They had been given assigned seats for when taking the exam, and Stein happened to be placed next to Marie. He didn't mind, though; and she certainly didn't. Marie already knew that he would be sitting next to her before hand since the teacher asked if he was there yet, so she pulled out her hair brush and made sure her hair was nice. She finished brushing her hair, and reached down to put it away. When she looked up, she saw Stein and jumped a little. She also let out a very light yelp, and the air left her lungs for a second.

Stein went up to the seat that was next to Marie's, and sat down in it.

"Franken! What did you do?" Marie instantly started questioning him, which he more than expected to happen.

"It's just an experiment. Don't worry about it," Stein said this, basically brushing off her question. She knew how he tended to do this, so she lightly smacked him in the arm, which was something only she dared to do.

"Don't worry about it? How could you expect me to not worry about it?" She wanted to give him one of her bone crushing punches instead, but had decided to settle for a smack. She really didn't want to hurt him or anything.

"I expect you to not worry about it, because it was just an experiment." He once again brushed it off, seeing that the teacher was starting to pass out tests.

"You're off the hook for now, but you have some explaining to do later," she said this in a tone that showed she was a little angered with him for the fact that he wasn't providing her with any sort of explanation.

"Alright, Marie, I promise I will explain after the test." As he said this, the pile of tests was passed to Marie.

"You better," she said this as she turned to her right and handed Stein the pile, which was starting to get pretty small since they were at one of the top seats.

"You guys will have an hour to complete the test, and no longer than that. Good luck!" she said this in her usual cheeful voice, starting the timer she had sitting on her desk; the one she used every year when taking the exams to keep it at exactly one hour.

Stein started taking the test, and it was beyond easy. Because of all the studying he had done, he knew the answers like the back of his hand. He flew right threw the first five questions, which were fill in the blanks, and got to the first written response.

Spirit, on the other hand, was not doing as well. He was just sitting by a random kid, but he was thankful that he wasn't annoying. He started his test, and got through the first five at a regular pace, one that was more humanly possible than Stein's. He felt pretty confident about his answers, but one he wasn't too sure about.

Kami had been stuck in an other room than the other three had been, and she was doing fairly well herself. She was going at a fast pace, and knew she was getting them all right. She had been caught sneaking back into her room and got grounded, so she just studied for the rest of the night in her room. She was glad that she had, because apparently it had helped out quite a lot.

Marie was doing really well, too. She had studied a lot more than Kami had, but still less than Stein. She wasn't going very fast, though. She liked to take her time and make sure she wasn't making any mistakes. She had no trouble at all with the questions, and was making some good progress. The only problem was she kept getting distracted with Stein sitting next to her.

She was really anxious to find out exactly what he had done to himself, and couldn't seem to keep the thought out of her mind. She kept looking over at him after every few questions that she answered, and luckily he didn't see that. He was too absorbed by his test to notice much of anything else but that.

He was almost half way done, and it had only been 20 minutes. If he kept that pace up, he would finish with 20 minutes to spare.

There is no way Spirit would finish with that amount of time left. He was only about 2/5 of the way through the test, and was having a bit of trouble. He could answer some of the questions easily, but then others he really had to stop and think of what the answer was; then sometimes if he didn't know, he just had to guess. He cursed himself for having such a terrible attention span, and continued taking the test.

Some of the other students weren't doing so well either. In fact, the kid that was sitting next to Spirit only had the first seven questions done, and was now sleeping. Other kids were guessing for a lot of the questions, and were sweating from being so worked up about doing badly. Compared to them, Spirit was doing quite well.

Kami was getting a lot of her test completed, and still had yet to find a question she couldn't answer. She was naturally smart, and didn't need to constantly study, so what she did was enough for her. Stein didn't really need to study that much either, but for some reason he felt the need.

"You guys have 20 more minutes left to complete the test. Don't rush, but try your best to get it done before time runs out," Mrs. Smith said this to the class, looking at the timer that sat at the edge of her desk.

Spirit still had a good amount of questions to answer, but if he hurried he should be able to get it done. He thought it better to hurry and have a chance to get it right, rather than to take his time and not even get to answer some. He had to stop and think for a lot of them, but didn't allow himself to pause for long. He just needed to get this done as fast as possible.

Kami was getting closer to being finished, and felt very confident that she would get it done within the time limit, leaving time to check over everything.

Marie had a little more left than Kami had, but she too knew she would finish. She didn't necessarily need to check over it because of the way she took her time, but if she had time left when she was done, she would.

Stein was on the last section of the test, and he was flying through that as well. In five minutes he was done, and started checking over what he had done. He didn't find any mistakes, and just thought of different experiments he could do when he was done. He also thought of how he would go about explaining the screw to Marie. If she wanted, he would tell her how it was done, even if she wouldn't really understand the terms.

The girl was always so involved in the things Stein did, so he was actually fairly open to her about things. She would always listen to him ramble on about science, even if she didn't understand a single word of it; she just loved hearing him talk, hearing the way his voice sounded. Sometimes when he would actually feel like talking, which was not often at all, he would go on for quite some time.

The other students were doing about just as well as Spirit. A lot of them were rushing and panicking to get done, while others didn't really care much about whether they had blanks left or not. The kid next to Spirit was still sleeping since he hadn't bothered to wake him up.

"You have five minutes left." Mrs. Smith looked up at everyone as she said this, and she saw Stein sitting up near the top, bascially staring into space; he was deep in thoughts of science. She started wondering the same things everyone else did, and planned on asking him about it after class. She knew how he loved science and how he was a little different than the other students, but she still didn't get why he would have done that.

Spirit zipped through the last parts of the test, and finished with a minute to spare. After he finished, he shook the kid next to him. He lifted his head up, noticing that everyone was finished with their test, and looked down at his. He said, "Man..." as he dropped his head onto the desk, an audible smack accompanying it.

Marie finished her test, not minding the fact that she didn't have any time to check over it. She looked at Stein, seeing how he was staring at nothing. She waved her hand in front of his face, and he looked over at her. She smiled at him, forgetting the fact that she was supposed to be angry with him. Stein just looked at her, scientific thoughts running through his mind still. He started going back into a stare, but she didn't care this time since he was technically staring at her.

Kami finished looking over everything, just as the teacher told them to pass in their tests. Everyone started handing them up front, and as the kid next to Spirit did, he kept his head on the desk as he whined.

"I am dead..." Spirit thought it was pretty funny, and didn't really regret not waking him up. There was someone on the other side of the kid, that was just as capable of waking him as Spirit was. He looked across to Stein, seeing him just staring at Marie. He knew that he wasn't really looking at her, but that it just happened to be the way he was when he became lost in thought.

Marie started studying his facial features, and especially noticed the color of his eyes. She just loved how deep of an olive color they were. She stared into them, also noticing the way the light caused them to glisten. She herself got a little lost in thought, and after a bit Stein noticed that she was looking at him. He just looked at her, seeing the way she was almost in awe.

"I guess I am supposed to tell you what I did to myself, huh?" She just seemed dazed, and also seemed to have not heard him completely.

"Huh?" she said this, still staring into the boy's eyes.

"I said I guess I am supposed to tell you what I did to myself, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. We're done with the test, so you have to tell me now." She tried to make herself seem angry with him again, but she really didn't do all that well at it. She knew she could never stay mad at him. She wasn't overly surprised that he had done that; it's something she almost expected of him.

"I am not going to explain it in detail, but I will tell you what it does. It's supposed to help me think more clearly, and it also helps with the madness."

"I knew it!" Marie blurted out. She knew he was affected by the madness, but she never really wanted to ask him.

"You did?" Stein could tell by the look on her face, that it wasn't the purpose of the screw that she knew. It was something else.

"Uh, yeah." She was trying to cover up what she had done, and she had a very slight blush now. She really didn't mean for that to slip out, and she was mentally scolding herself for the fact that it had.

"And how exactly did you know?" He was just messing with her now, and had a slight smirk on his face.

"Lucky guess?" she said sheepishly.

"I suppose it was." He said this as he got up from his desk, since it was time for them to go to their next class. She was thankful that he didn't pry into it or anything, and just got up and followed him down to the front of the room.

People were staring at him, just like he had expected. When he got down to where Mrs. Smith's desk was, he turned the screw three times, which sent shivers down Marie's spine. Everyone looked terrified, and just about ran out of the room.

"Franken, can I see you for a moment," Mrs. Smith called to Stein while she waved him over.

"Sure." Stein turned around and took a few steps back to her desk. Spirit was just coming down, and stood next to Marie.

"What exactly is that?" she asked this, pointing to the screw at the end.

"I am going to give you a general description. I am sure you don't want to hear it in detail." Mrs. Smith stopped him before he could explain.

"Actually, I would love to hear it in detail. I took a class on neuroscience before I taught here, so I am sure I can handle it." Stein's perked up slightly, and was intrigued that she wanted to hear about it. He was glad that he could finally tell someone about it the proper way.

As Stein started explaining it, Spirit and Marie walked out of the class since they knew it would be a bit. They turned around before leaving, only to see Stein now sitting next to Mrs. Smith's desk, thoroughly explain everything. He was even making hand motions along with what he was saying.

As they turned to leave, Marie let out a sigh.

"I'm really not too surprised, to be honest with you." Marie said this as she looked over at Spirit.

"When I found him laying in his room, I wasn't really either."

"Do you know anything about it?" He thought of the notes he had read, and figured he could let Marie know a little about it.

"Actually, I do. If you want, I can even tell you a little on how he did it."

"Spirit, tell me anything you know. He didn't really say much about it to me." She sighed again.

"Well, he actually had to remove part of his skull."

"He what?"

"He removed the front part of his skull, and some parts of the sides. He even had to move his brain around. I came into his room and when he was sleeping, I read some of the stuff he had written in a notebook."

"You just went in and read it without asking?"

"It's not like I was snooping or anything. The notebook was already open and on his desk. I was putting it away for him since he fell asleep at his desk, and I just started reading it. I read that at one of the positions he had to move his brain to, he was paralyzed for a bit."

"How is that even possible?"

"I don't have a clue about that stuff. I don't even know how he understands it as well as he does; people usually have to go to college for that stuff. But anyway, he moved it around and was able to make himself not be paralyzed anymore. He had to position his brain so he could have the screw going through properly. It's insane the stuff he had to do. He had to stitch up tissue, skin, everything he had cut through. Apparently the entire time towards the end he was almost unconscious."

"What if he would have gone unconscious?"

"I read that he could have bled out. He could have ended up dying." Marie's face looked absolutely horrified.

"And not just from that. If he would have made a wrong incision, moved something the wrong way, really if anything would have gone wrong, he very easily could have died."

"What's wrong with him! Why would he do that?" She was mad at him all over again.

"I will tell you later; just wait a minute. But anyway, when I woke up in the morning, I had to go to the bathroom. So I went back the hall, and when I got there the door had a sign on it. It said to not come in because there was a mess. I didn't listen, though, and went in anyway. Let me just say, I wish I hadn't. You wouldn't believe how much blood was in that room. It was literally everywhere. There were even foot prints of blood from when Stein had walked out. It was so disgusting." Marie gagged a little.

"I can only imagine what that looked like," she said this as she put her hand up to her mouth. "Can you tell me why he did it now?"

"Not yet. But after I was done reacting to the bathroom, I went to ask Stein about it. There was a sign on his door as well. It said that he would be sleeping for a while due to an experiment, and that he would be up in time to make dinner.

"I went in to see what was up since he had forgot to lock the door, and when I went in I saw an empty vial of anesthetics on his desk, and a sleeping Stein. He was out cold, all day. He only got up once to clean the bathroom, then went to sleep for a few more hours. He finally got up and made dinner, studied, and fell alseep again."

"I can only imagine how exhausted he was after that, and how painful it would have been." Marie shuddered at the thought.

"I know. That kid is tough. But now to the reason. I read that he was having trouble keeping one of his nightmares out of his thoughts.. He had dreamed that he was cutting me open." As he said that last part, she had a look of slight shock on her face.

"He was having trouble keeping the thought out of his mind, so he needed someway to do that. He almost got me one night when I was sleeping, but managed to stop himself before he did anything. Apparently it really scares him."  
"Oh my Death... I didn't know he was having trouble."

"It seems that it hadn't been going on too long. But it was enought that he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself much longer. So basically, he put his own life in danger for the safety of mine."

"That's so sweet! I can't believe he did that for you. I never thought of him as someone that would do that. He is such a sweety." Marie started going off, only to be stopped by Spirit.  
"But listen, you can't say anything about it to Stein. He doesn't know that I know, and I can't imagine that he would want me to."

"Sure thing," she said this with a smile on her face, seeing Stein walking down the hall. He was getting closer to them, and she couldn't contain how happy she was. She was smiling so much, Spirit thought it would get stuck that way. She just felt so happy to know that he was that caring.

Stein got up to the two, and saw how Marie was looking at him. He just tried to ignore her, and stood next to Spirit.

"Can we go now? We need to be getting to Mr. Collins."

"Yeah, let's go. See you later, Marie." Spirit waved to Marie as they started off.

"Bye guys! See you later, Franken." She paid more attention to Stein, still in awe.

"Goodbye, Marie," Stein said this, still wondering why she was looking at him so weirdly. She walked off, going to meet up with Kami.

"Just ignore her; you know how she gets." Spirit tried to cover himself, praying to Death that she wouldn't say anything about what he had said to her.

"Yeah, she is something."

They continued on, and soon they were at Mr. Tredway's room, where both him and Mr. Collins were sitting and talking. Mr. Collins felt their souls enter the room, so he turned around and got up to head over to them.

"Woah, Stein. What with the?" He started, pointing to the screw.

"I guess I am going to have to get used to explaining. Do you want details, or just a general description?"

"Just something basic. I don't want to take forever; we have something important to do today."

"It's supposed to help me think clearer, and it also helps with the madness."

"Ah, let's get going. We will be starting something that you aren't familiar with, so I need you guys to really concentrate today."

"What are we going to be doing exactly?" Spirit asked this as he moved to the left side of his professor, and Stein was on the right side.

"We are going to be working with another team."

Spirit and Stein stopped for a minute, and gave each other confused looks. Mr. Collins had kept going, but soon noticed that the boys were no longer on each side of him. He stopped and turned to them.

"Well, are you coming?"

"Yeah," both boys said in unison, clear confusion showing in their tone of voice as they started off again.

* * *

"Today you will be working with another team, and it looks like they are here now." As he said this, two kids came up to the group, one having short black hair and pale skin, the other having dark hair and skin.

"Stein and Spirit, this is Azusa Yumi and Sid Barrett. You will working with them for the next week or so."

"Hey Stein, Spirit," Sid said this, extending an arm out. Stein shook it, then following him was Spirit.

"Hello Sid, it's nice to meet you," Spirit said this, pulling his arm away as he did so. They looked over at Azusa, and saw how she was standing there with a sort of arrogant look about her.

"I don't like you, Stein. You never stop trying to cut people open," she said this as she looked Stein up and down, showing an obvious disapproval of the boy. He was surprised that she didn't call him Franken; every other girl did.

"It's science; I need subjects. But anyway, I never really have the intention of doing so. Not by force at least." She huffed at him, and looked at Spirit.

"And you. You never stop chasing after girls. I swear, if you try to go after me-"

"Oh, don't worry. I don't like bitches."

"Come on, guys. That's enough." Mr. Collins huffed. "This doesn't seem to be going very well," he thought aloud. "You guys are going to have to set your differences aside for this lesson."

"What is the lesson anyway? All you have said so far is that we will have to work together," Sid said this to Mr. Collins, trying to get everyone to direct their thoughts more towards that than each other.

"Today for our lesson, you guys will be working together, to learn how to resonate as team. As in, all four of you will need to get your souls to resonate as you have done selectively with your partner so far."

"How do we do that?" Spirit asked this, not having a single clue how it was supposed to be done.

"There's not much I can do to explain this; it's more of a learn by doing sort of thing."

"Then we'll just have to try it for ourselves," Sid said this in response, looking at the other team members after. Mr. Collins turn towards Stein.

"Stein, with the way your wavelength is already extremely flexible, this should not take you long at all. That is really going to help speed up the process. I can guarantee that you will be the leader of the team, and you will strengthen the resonance." Stein nodded, thinking of all the times he has manipulated his wavelength to cause more damage to opponents, and how many times he has done it to nullify attacks as well.

"Yeah, thank Death Stein is working with us," Spirit said this, know just how flexible his wavelength was from going on so many missions with him.

"You certainly are lucky that you are being introduced to this with him on your team. That will give you an advantage that most people don't have," Mr. Collins said this as he looked at Stein again. Stein just stood there expressionless, not exactly liking the attention he was getting.

"I know this may sound strange at first, but trust me with this; it will help you in the long run. Before you learn to link your souls together, I want you guys to fight." Everyone's expression changed to a one of shock and confusion.

"It will be helpful to fight against each other, as it will help you get used to each other's fighting styles. This will also lead to understanding each other better, which always helps resonance link be preformed better." Stein looked intrigued at this, and looked forward to fighting. He didn't like this Azusa girl, but he didn't mind Sid. He almost hoped that Azusa was a meister, just so he could pound on her a little.

"Okay, when do we start?" Sid asked this, looking at Mr. Collins.

"Actually, it would be nice if you guys started as soon as possible."

"Okay, are you guys ready?" Stein asked the rest of the teens.

"We're ready if you are," Azusa said this, also seeming to want to fight a bit. She didn't get the same pleasure from pain that Stein did, for she just enjoyed the fact of beating people.

"Sure, let's go then." Spirit said this, then became engulfed in yellow light. His body started morphing, and soon he was a large, black scythe. Stein caught him, and brought him to his side.

"You ready?" Sid asked this of Azusa, and she nodded in response. She transformed into a crossbow to Stein's disappointment. Sid held her out, seeming to find it very natural to do.

"Okay, begin," Mr. Collins said this as he backed up and went over to a tree that was a short distance off, being close enough that he could still observe them well, but far enough as to make sure he didn't get hurt by one of the couples.

Sid was excited to fight Stein, as he is very well known at the academy for completely slicing up any of his opponents.

"Stein, just make sure to not kill him," Mr. Collins said this as he crossed his arms. He had a very serious tone to his voice, which let Stein know he was being more than serious. He didn't like the idea of holding back, but if he had to he would.

Sid charged after Stein, hoping to get a little up close. He wanted to prove himself to Stein and the others, so he would have to make himself look like he was willing to take risks. He, obviously, wouldn't need to get up close with a crossbow, so it was just for that reason.

He got up to Stein, and before he could do anything, Stein reached out and grabbed Sid by the throat. He lifted him up in the air, and by the look on his face he had been calculating something.

"Hmm... 184 pounds. Not the heaviest I have delt with." As soon as Stein finished saying this, Sid kicked Stein and he released his grip. Sid tried to shoot Stein, but he quickly swung the blade in a circular motion, blocking the attack. Sid tried again, but Stein only swung the scythe counterclockwise this time, blocking it yet again.

Stein ran up to Sid, and swung at the boy's head. Sid went back into a limbo-like postition, and came back up as soon as Spirit's blade was past him. Right when he went back up, Stein swung the other way, and Sid jumped back. He fired again as he did this, and Stein ducked down and he ran towards him again, getting just barely low enough.

Stein got up to him again, and energy crackled around his hand. He was going to try to use soul force. Since he always manipulates his wavelength depending upon the opponent's when using this technique, it would be a good way to become more familiar with Sid's. He swung outward, and Sid just barely move out of the way. He was close enough that he could start to feel the energy that surrounded Stein's hand, and he could tell the attack was powerful.

He had been too busy thinking about how he was thankful to have not been hit with it, that he didn't properly dodge the next attack. Stein swung at him, and Sid moved out of the way only slightly. It was enough that Stein only made a cut in the boy's arm. It wasn't too thick, but it was thick enough that blood started running down his arm.

Sid looked down at his arm, seeing the blood pour out of it. He looked back up to see Stein staring at the blood, with a slight smirk on his face. He started running to Stein again, and shot at him as he did so. Stein ducked and swung, a full smile now on his face. It wasn't a grin yet, but he could feel it start to creep up on him.

Sid ducked down, and grabbed onto Stein's ankles. The boy that was being held onto looked down at the other, and kicked at him with all his might. He got him in the nose, a drop of blood running out as he released his grip on Stein. Sid quickly got up and took a few steps back, grabbing onto his nose as he did so. He had no clue Stein could kick so hard. His nose was throbbing terribly; he knew he had broke it.

"Jeez, Stein," Spirit said this to Stein, seeing how badly he was bleeding, from both his nose and the cut on his arm. Stein didn't have a single scratch on him.

Stein ignored Spirit and ran to Sid again. Sid's eyes went wide slightly as he let go of his nose and sidestepped the blade that was being swung at him, more violently this time. Stein was starting to get into this, and he couldn't think of anything else but slicing the boy's throat open. He had felt how warm it was when he grabbed onto it, and hadn't been able to stop thinking about it since then.

He wanted to see deep red blood rush out of it, but he knew he wouldn't be allowed to see such a thing. He reached up and grabbed onto the screw as he crouched down to avoid another shot coming from Sid. He turned it four times, until a final and louder_ click_ was audible. This made Sid cringe, and he almost didn't miss the next attack of Stein's. Stein swung his hand at the boy again, hoping to shoot his wavelength at him. Sid moved to the side, and Stein's hand brushed his side slightly.

He felt his wavelength enter his body very slightly; it was enough that he could feel it, but not enough that it hurt. Stein knew he was getting closer to defeating him, and it thrilled him. He just wished that he could cut him open. Since he turned the screw, the desire wasn't as intoxicating and luring, but it was still there in his subconscious.

Sid pulled his arm back to try to punch Stein, but Stein just grabbed his fist and twisted his arm behind his back. He got right behind Sid, to the point that he was breathing on his neck. A grin spread across his face as he brought the blade of the scythe up to his throat.

Sid used his free arm to elbow Stein in the ribs, and he released his grip on his arm. Sid slid from under the scythe, and turned to face Stein. The grin made him shudder, but he quickly ignored it and backed up to take a shot at the boy. Stein sidestepped the attack, and was beginning to grow quite impatient.

Mr. Collins sighed at seeing Stein, and he knew what he wanted. He just hoped that Stein would listen to what he had said to him in the beginning. He leaned into the tree, and folded his arms again. "That boy sure is something," he said aloud to himself.

Stein ran after Sid, and swung at him, green electricity covering his hand. Sid had stepped with his one leg too far, and ended up tripping on his own feet. He fell to the ground, right next to a tree. Stein changed the direction of his course, and slammed his hand down onto Sid's ribs. His wavelength coursed through his body, causing him to tremble violently. Mr. Collins cringed and said, "Ooh," at seeing this.

Stein stepped over him so he had one leg on each side of the boy. He grinned and looked over at Mr. Collins, remembering what he had said to him.

"Can I at least cut into him a bit?" Stein asked Mr. Collins this, earning a sigh and an eye roll from his instructor.

"Only a little bit, but nothing major." Stein's grin extended to be the width of his entire face.

"Let's see what we have here," he said this in a very menacing tone as he brought the scythe blade right over top Sid's face. A drop of sweat rolled down the boys face as Stein made a small incision on his cheek. Blood dripped down his face, a drop falling to the ground and soaking into it as Stein brought the blade to his neck. He brought it across his throat in a slow motion, obviously, as to make sure he could feel his skin slit open.

He did it fairly deeply, so blood instantly started running out. He did the same to a spot a little higher on his throat, then made a short cut veritcally, joining the two horizontal lines. At this point, blood was covering the ground around him, and was on the back of his neck as well. He started trembling, and Stein smirked at this.

He reach down to his throat, and Sid tried to crouch back, but he was already as far back as he could possibly go. Stein peeled back the square of skin he had cut, examining the tissue as soon as it became visible.

Sid tried to use his remaining energy to kick Stein, but as soon as Stein saw him try to bring his leg up, he let go of the flap of skin. He grabbed onto Sid's throat with a death grip, and violently brought the boy right up to his face as he clenched his teeth. He dropped the scythe, and drew his scalpel from the pocket of his lab coat. He held it over Sid's eye, and Mr. Collins immediately ran over to them.

"Hey, Stein! Let go of him right now," Mr. Collins said this in a stern voice as he got right up to the boy. Stein threw Sid to the ground, and he put his scalpel away and walked off.

Spirit transformed back, and so did Azusa. They all watched with a concerned look on their face as Stein stormed off towards the academy. Spirit started trying to go after him, but Mr. Collins put his hand in front of him and stopped him.  
"Let him go. He just needs time to calm himself down." Spirit's face looked a little sad, but he obeyed the professor and stayed with the rest of them.

Stein got closer to the academy, but just went past it. He was breathing heavily, and had both his teeth and fists clenched. He reached up and turned the screw a good six times, and stopped walking for a minute. He could feel the madness just looming over himself, and it was all he could do to not laugh. He started going again after looking behind him, as to make sure that no one was following him.

He continued on, and was soon away from the academy. He didn't know where he was going, but he just had to be gone from there. He felt his hand involuntarily slip into his pocket and wrap around the scalpel. He needed to just slaughter something, but he didn't know what.

A slick grin spread across his face as he walked on, and he started thinking of things he could do. He needed to find a subject, he needed to get his hands on something; his hands itched to wrap around something's throat.

He went down his road, and one of the neighbors was sitting on their porch. They gave him a weird look when they saw the screw, but their face turned into one of horror as he looked at them with that grin and a look of insanity in his eyes. They ran into their house and locked the door behind them. They went to their window, and looked through the curtains. He just kept going, and they sighed in relief.

The woman's husband saw her, and asked, "What's wrong?"

She looked at him, and walked over to the wooden table he was sitting at.

"I think he's finally lost it."

"Do you mean Franken?"

"Who else would I mean?"

"I guess that was a stupid question." After he said this, he continued reading the newspaper, and his wife went over to the back window, only to see Stein slip into the woods behind his house.

He started rushing through the branches and thorns, paying no attention to the fact that his coat kept getting caught on the plants. He was getting deeper in the woods, and he spotted a fox. He started rushing towards it, and turns out the fox was a little jumpy today, as he ran towards Stein and tried to bite onto his extending arm. Stein caught the animal by the throat, and held the squirmy thing up to his face. A grin split across it, and a loud cry could be heard echoing through the woods.

* * *

Spirit sat in Mrs. Smith's class, and he couldn't sit still. He kept bouncing his legs up and down as his mind raced. Stein wasn't in class, and he was more than worried about him. Up until he read his notes about his experiment, he had never thought that he would ever hurt someone. But now, he wasn't entirely sure. He just wanted school to end, so he could get home to see where Stein was. He couldn't believe how slowly the period was going by, and he _still_ had to go to Mr. Reignhardt's class. He just sat there in her class, hoping that he wouldn't do anything he would regret later.

During the entire lunch break, all he could do was worry. He told Marie and Kami in full detail, and they seemed to share the same worry that he had. Marie expressed it more than Kami did, and she seemed like she was about to jump out of her skin. When Spirit told the part of how he peeled back his skin, and when he grabbed Sid by the throat, shivers went down her spine.

Right now Sid was sitting in the dispensary, and his throat was being stitched up. The nurse was amazed at the damage Stein had caused him. He had a broken, bloody and bruised nose, a fairly deep cut in his arm, a thoroughly and incredibly smoothly cut open throat, along with bruises covering the area of his rib cage.

Spirit sat next to Marie and Kami, and was still shaking his legs in an effort to get rid of his nervous energy.

"Do you have any idea why he is just like this all the sudden?" Marie asked this, trying to do something other than just worry.

"I have no clue. Things actually seemed to be going really well lately. I couldn't see anything wrong with him, at all really. The only thing that pointed to something being wrong was that he was having trouble with thoughts of dissecting me. And it was me, not anyone else."

"Besides, he took care of that when he did the whole screw thing, didn't he?" Kami asked.

"That's what I thought at least. I just need to get home and see what he is up to. Who knows, maybe he is just sitting in his room."

"Or he could be hurting someone," Marie said, her voice catching slightly from fear.

"Don't say that. I don't even want to think of that possibility."

He went through the rest of Mrs. Smith's class crawling out of his skin, praying to Death that he was at home. It seemed like hours, but he was finally in Mr. Reignhardt's class, doing exercises to help concentrate on his soul. He could barely concentrate at all, but luckily with the kind of exercises they were doing, his thoughts somehow were able to shift from that slightly.

* * *

Stein stood in the woods, looming over the completely mauled fox carcass that was drenched in blood. His hands, scalpel, and lab coat were covered in blood just like the carcass was, and he also had some splashed through his hair and on his face. He still had that killer's grin on his face, and he was not satisfied.

He needed more. More blood. He had to find something else. He went off and started searching for something else to get his hands on, and soon he found a squirrel that was sitting on the ground with a nut in its paws. It tried running off, but wasn't fast enough to get away from him.

He wiped the handle and blade of his scalpel off on his lab coat, and stuck it up to the squirrel. He had his hand wrapped firmly around both the metal and the squirrel that was now having its eyes gouged out. The thing wouldn't stop squirming, so he slammed it into the nearest tree, and in complete and total frustration, shoved the scalpel right through its skull and into its brain.

He started laughing as he felt the way the scalpel tore through the muscle, the tissue, the wonderful organ that controlled _used_ to control everything the animal did. He slowly slid the scalpel out of the bone as his giggles curved up into hysterical laughter, paying attention to just how everything felt. He started digging into the animal's stomach, and once he was done with that, he cut out its heart.

He took the heart out of the chest of the squirrel, and just let the rest of the bloody thing drop to the ground. He started looking at how the wet and bloody heart shined in the little sunlight that was shining through the leaves of the trees. He studied the veins and tissue that the organ was composed of, and started tearing it with his bare hands. He felt the tissue slip through his hands; then ran his fingers through the blood that filled the organ, and was once pulsing through the body. Once he finished, he just let the organ slip through his hands. He was bored with it, and wanted something else. Something different.

* * *

Spirit ran through the academy doors, Marie and Kami walked out after him. He started going down the long stairs, cursing that there were so many of them. He needed to be as quick as possible, and that didn't help at all.

He started running down the road, praying to Death, yet again, that in the time we were in class, Stein hadn't hurt anyone. His mind was racing, his heart was pounding, and he was honestly filled with fear.

The neighbor that had been out earlier was out again, and saw Spirit go by.

"Hey, Spirit!" she yelled to him. He ran over to her porch and up to her.

"Hello, Mrs. Torrez."

"Judging by the look on your face you are already doing this, but I would advise you look after your friend. Something seemed off about him."

"He came by here?" He seemed relieved to know that he was at least in the area.

"Yeah, he went-" Before she could finish Spirit started down the stairs, and headed for the house.

"I thought you would at least want to know where he is," she said this, even though she knew he wouldn't be able to hear him.

He got up to the front of the house and opened the door, rushing in and leaving the door open. He ran to Stein's room, seeing the door hanging wide open. He ran in and saw that Stein wasn't there.

"Damn it!" he grumbled to himself.

He ran out, slamming the door shut behind him. He searched the rest of the house thoroughly, swearing to himself again as he saw that Stein was nowhere.

He ran through the back door, and slammed the door behind himself. They still had a large backyard, mainly for the purpose of training, but now he regretted this. He ran through the large amount of land that was behind their house, and that was basically a field. He picked up his speed as he got closer to the woods, and swore to himself once more. He started racing through the trees and branches, wincing at the thorns that were scratching his skin.

He kept going, and saw a deep red off to the side. He raced over to it, and saw that it was a maimed fox. He knew then that Stein had been through there, as the carcass appeared to be fairly fresh. Damn it.

He started going off again, and soon found the squirrel. It laid on the ground in a puddle of blood, next to a tree that had blood rubbed all over it. He took notice that the heart was missing out of it, and looked to his right, seeing the completely torn up organ laying there. He knew he had to be getting closer, as this carcass was even fresher than the last one.

He started running, and running, and running. He took twist after twist, turn after turn, until he finally found a sign of Stein. He could hear him. It was that eerie laughter that he was familiar with by now. He followed the sound of it, and it started getting louder and louder the closer he got.

He went to a dead stop when he saw Stein surrounded by blood and organs. There was a dead deer lying at his feet, completely gutted and in shreds. He had deep bite marks; one on his neck, and one on his hand. Apparently that animal didn't go down without a fight.

Stein stood there, his shoulders shaking from laughter. His coat was drenched in deep, red blood. His hands were covered, just as the scalpel that was hanging limply in his fingers was. His hair and face were both splashed with blood. Stein was turned from Spirit, his shuddering back facing the boy that stood with a look of terror on his face. Stein apparently felt the boy's soul, or heard him coming, as he turned to face him.

Spirit saw a terrible grin on his face; the worst, most disturbing and insane grin he had ever seen. His giggles turned into frantic, maniacal laughter as his eyes showed that he was deeply submersed in the madness.

**Well, there you go. Looks like it's getting kinda tense over there, huh? Hahaha, you wouldn't believe how fun it was to write that. I was so into it, that I was writing 2,000 words per hour. Hmm... I have this feeling that I am not going to be lazy with the next chapter since it's getting to the fun part.**


	11. The Evil of False Reality

**Hahaha... This chapter is shorter than any of the other ones, and I do not plan on them being this short ever again. But with the advice of someone else, I decided to do it this way.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 11 The Evil of False Reality

Spirit stood there, watching his partner drown in the madness. Stein began to move the scalpel that was hanging from his fingers, and started twirling it slightly. His eyes were glued on Spirit, and Spirit didn't like this very much. He hated the way he was staring at him with the eyes of a lunatic. He wouldn't stop. He just kept staring as he laughed, slightly gasping for air every now and then.

Spirit had no idea about what he should do. He knew that, obviously, Stein was dangerous at the moment. Any little thing could trigger him, set him off, and he could attack. He had to be careful and make sure he didn't do anything that would cause that. He needed to at least get him back to the house, maybe then he could calm down. He didn't know if that would happen even if he was at the house, but he figured it was better than having him be out where he could get to people.

Stein felt intoxicated, suffocated, and a little light headed. It was all he could do to stay on his feet, and all he could do to not charge at Spirit. The subconscious part of his mind was still slightly sane, and that's what kept him back. Before his subconscious was insane, and it fought with the sane part. But now the madness dominated, and he struggled to keep himself from becoming completely lost.

He was shaking slightly, his hands trembled. The only reason why the scalpel hadn't fell out of his hands from the tremors was the grip he had on it. He wanted to carve into the boy's skin; he wanted to see the beautiful liquid pour out of the incisions. He wanted to tear apart tissue, muscle, anything, everything. His lips stayed curved up, although that was the opposite of what he wanted.

To Stein, everything had begun spinning. It sent chills through his body, it made him feel dizzy, and his head felt as light as air. When he felt this lightness rush over his body, he tried his best to plant his feet into the ground. He felt even more light headed, and more insane giggles poured out. He would almost sound like he was choking at times; this was the result of trying to hold it back.

Spirit could see how hard he was trying. Just by looking at him, and hearing him, he could tell that he was doing everything possible to keep himself back. He honestly felt bad for his partner. He hated that he had to go through this, for no other kid ever had to. He watched, pained by all of it.

"Hey, Stein. Just calm down," Spirit said this, and Stein's faced looked slightly of anger.

"Why?" he asked this in a way that made it seem as if he felt he was being accused of something.

"I don't want you to hurt anyone." Spirit made sure to make his voice sound calm, and quiet. He had to be careful that he didn't aggravate him, so he also made sure to make himself look as friendly as possible.

Before Stein could respond, everything stopped spinning. Spirit was no longer Spirit, but Stein's father whom he had not seen in years. The tall figure stood in front of him, grinning. He was wearing the clothes that surgeons wear while preforming operations, along with the typical surgical mask and latex gloves. The only reason why Stein could tell he was grinning was that it was so large that it extended out of the mask. His father was also covered in blood.

He was laughing, much like Stein had been. For the first time in quite a while, Stein was quiet. He just stood there totally transfixed, eyes clouded by madness. He didn't move or make a sound, and this confused Spirit. He stood there for a minute and watched him. He tried to move forward to Stein, but the minute he did this the gray and bloody haired boy snarled at him, and his face was instantly filled with absolute hatred.

Spirit was confused by this sudden aggression, but had no time to think of what had set him off. Stein went after Spirit, and had him pressed against the nearest tree, scalpel right to his face.

"This is all your fault!" Stein screamed at the illusion.

"What?" Spirit asked with complete confusion showing in his voice. Stein didn't hear Spirit, but heard his father's voice speaking to him.

"You are the reason this is happening!" Stein couldn't have possibly been any louder, or any more angered. His father laughed at him, so he pull the boy's head back and slammed it into the tree. Spirit winced.

"What are you talking about?" Pain weakened Spirit's voice, and he was starting to become scared of the maniac that stood in front of him.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know you haven't forgotten. It just killed you from the minute it was all over," Stein said this, but at a lower volume. However, the same great amount of hatred dripped from him. Stein had his face up close to his father's, and clenched his teeth. Spirit could see his eyes, they looked almost dazed.

"Stein, you have to tell me. What is going on?" Stein just ignored him, and there was a brief pause before anything else happened. Spirit tried to slip out of Stein's grasp, but it did nothing.

Stein's father kicked his son, and Stein released Spirit. He stood and looked at his father with blurry vision. Spirit was confused as to why he just let him go for no reason, but he certainly did not pass the opportunity to move away from the tree. Spirit held his arms out in front of him slowly, and started circling Stein very carefully.

"It's okay, Stein. I'm not going to hurt you." Stein heard this come from his father instead. Stein went into a short fit of giggles at hearing this.

"How could you expect me to believe such a lie? You've already scarred me once. What makes you think I'd believe you wouldn't do it again?" He laughed a little more, and Spirit just tried to make sense of it all.

Spirit continued to circle Stein until he got to a position where he wasn't right in the course of a tree. Stein heard his father start laughing, so he ran at him, trying to grab onto his throat. Spirit ducked and ran behind Stein. Stein still saw his laughing father in front of him, but when he tried to wrap his hands around his throat, he turned into smoke and disappeared. His mind was too lost to comprehend that he hadn't been there, so he turned to search for him.

He was now standing where Spirit was, so he charged at him. Spirit moved out of the way in the wrong direction, for he was now right in front of a tree. Stein just grabbed onto the boy's neck; he thought it was a death grip, but in reality he was just touching it. He put the scalpel that was covered in now dried blood right up to Spirit's face.

"I am going to cut your eyes out, slice them in two. Then I'll cut out your heart. I'll shove my blade into you, twist and turn it, then pull it back out slowly..." At the end of saying this, Stein's voice dissolved into a fit of berserk laughter. Spirit started trembling, as he saw no way to get away from him. Then he thought of something.

Spirit brought his arm up slightly, and it transformed into a blade. Stein was practically hunched over Spirit, so when the blade formed, it was an inch away from slicing into his nose, the tip of the blade almost touching his forehead. Stein stopped laughing, but he looked at Spirit through the hair that covered most of his face, and a wicked grin formed.

"If I had something a little bigger, I would butcher you." Stein said this in a light tone, the grin never failing to remain. For the first time he saw it was Spirit, but that didn't change his desire in the slightest. He brought a trembling hand up to Spirit's face, but when he did that Spirit knocked his hand back, causing the scalpel to release from his grip.

He had to make sure Spirit didn't get away. He shot his wavelength into the boy. Something was different. Spirit had felt his wavelength before, and this wasn't it. This was more twisted, evil, and drenched in madness. He felt the wavelength penetrate through his body, and it felt so dirty. He cringed and let out a short scream while Stein grabbed his scalpel and gripped onto it so hard Spirit thought his fingers would snap.

Stein turned to face Spirit. His hair was still covering most of his face, his insane eyes showing through. His grin seemed to get wider, if that was even possible. Spirit could barely move, from both the pain of his partner's twisted wavelength blasting through him, and fear. He started trembling, and when Stein saw this, he started giggling again.

He began walking slowly over to Spirit, with a very eerie look about him. The closer he got, the more Spirit shook, and the more Stein laughed. As he inched forward, his giggles started turning more insane and berserk. He was now standing directly in front of Spirit, and his laughter had turned into a maniacal fit of hysteria.

He loomed over top of Spirit, who was almost paralyzed in shock, and pulled his arm back. He thrust it forward.

**Ha! Looks like you're just going to have to wait to see what happens. ^_^**


	12. Illusions, Illusions, and More Illusions

**I would have had this one done sooner if I wouldn't have spent three days trying to edit it. But I realized that I was writing three chapters for one day (I count it as one chapter since the last one was short, and this one added on equals my regular chapter lengths). But I decided to see how many words it is, and it is about 16,950 words for a time period of 7:00 A.M.- 5:00 P.M... Not detailed at all..**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 12 Illusions, Illusions, and More Illusions

Spirit just barely ducked, but did. The scalpel drove into the tree, exactly where Spirit's head had been. Stein pulled it out, and turned to see Spirit standing behind him. He morphed into his father like he had before, and the bloody illusion once again clouded Stein's mind.

Stein lunged at his father, who disappeared as a cloud of smoke once again. He turned, seeing him grinning behind him. He thrust the scalpel into him, and the scalpel went through the body, and so did his hand. He looked up at his father, and he started laughing at his son. He turned into smoke again and the laughter echoed. He could still slightly hear it in the back of his mind, as if it was taunting him.

Spirit stood beside him, watching him cut through air, time after time. Then he saw Stein look up over towards the direction of the house. He started walking towards it, stumbling slightly and having a blank gaze on his face. Spirit's face contorted to show he had no clue what the boy was doing.

Spirit just followed him through the woods, and he could hear faint, short giggles come out every now and then. It all had a very eerie feeling to it. Stein seemed to have no clue that Spirit was even anywhere near him, but in a way it made him feel safer for the time being.

He just followed the delusional boy out from the woods, and stopped when they got out to the field. Stein stared at thin air, but then the thing he was staring at, which was his father, had apparently disappeared once again; for he started looking back and forth for it frantically. His eyes were wide, wild, and far from normal looking.

Stein dropped to his knees, and his hands slid over his face as he began to giggle quietly to himself. Spirit just watched it all, wishing there was something he could do. He had no clue what he was seeing, thinking, or feeling; all he knew was that it was all caused by the madness wavelengths. He started wondering to himself what had caused him to snap all of the sudden, just like that.

The giggles turned into a full out fit of hysteria, but then he stopped and got up. His hands dropped to his sides, still clutching the scalpel like his life depended on it. What Stein was seeing, was that he was at his father's lab again. His father entered the room, and Stein turned around to look at him. Now that he was facing Spirit, his partner could see the fear in his eyes.

His father had a bone saw in his hands, and Stein instantly knew that he was going to kill him. He turned around and started running. He didn't know exactly where he was going, but in reality he was heading for the house. Spirit just jogged behind him, making sure he stayed nearby, but avoided getting too close.

Stein could hear his father charging after him, and he started sweating and trembling. He could feel fear and anxiety begin to well up in his already foggy mind. Everything seemed as if it was blending together. The sound of his father's laughter and footsteps, smells, sights, feelings of things slithering all over his body, and the false taste of blood; all starting to blend together into one big blur.

He sprinted as fast as he could through the back door, and through the house. He saw that he was in the house he had lived in as a child, and he was running to his room for protection like he had when he awoke from the dissection long ago. He was actually just running through the house he and Spirit had moved into a while ago.

He could feel his father getting close enough that he could almost feel him breathe on him, he could see the bone saw try to get to his shoulder to cut into it. Stein screamed and slammed his bedroom door shut, locking it and checking that it was locked seven times before falling down in front of the door. He curled up against it and started trembling, in fear of his father possibly finding some way to get in. Spirit stood outside the door, and started hearing a faint whimper come from the other side.

Stein couldn't stop thinking of his father with that bone saw. He couldn't stop picturing him standing there, grinning, and covered in blood. He was terrified that he would break into the room and kill him. He now saw that it was his current room, but was too terrified to care.

His door was only wooden, he could break through it at any minute. He could be waiting for him to let his guard down, then he would smash the door in and slaughter him. He knew he could never risk opening the door to see if he was still there, for he could be prepared for him to do so, and cut into him the minute the door opened. He had concluded that he only had days, at the most, left to live.

He was in that little room, and would be cornered if he did break in. He had a scalpel, and his father had a bone saw, and possibly other weapons. He thought that his father could also be using his fear as a way to buy time for himself to go get other weapons, or possibly other people to help him end him. He shuddered.

He couldn't see just how ridiculous these thoughts were since he was so lost. His mind was becoming completely fogged over, nothing seemed to make sense, and physically he felt terrible. Just like he had before, he felt extremely light headed. He felt like he was going to faint, and this scared him to no end because he thought that if he were to, his father could easily get him.

Spirit didn't know what he was doing in there, but he could hear him making noises that sounded like faint cries. He also didn't know how long he would be in there. He intended on waiting there for him to come out, even if it meant sitting there for hours. He would only leave for things like going to the bathroom or grabbing something to eat, but even then he would try to get back as soon as possible.

He sat on the floor and leaned into the door, pressing his ear against it to hear better. He had indeed been crying, and he could almost hear Stein trembling against the door. He didn't know what was causing him this great amount of fear, but he wished he did. Maybe then he could say something that would make him feel safer. But since he didn't know, there wasn't much he could do, so he sat there for a bit.

He had to go to the bathroom, so he got up and walked to the room. He washed his hands when he was done, and turned out the lights before closing the door behind him. He started down the hall, and could hear what sounded like very loud laughing and crying mixed. He ran to Stein's door, and pressed his ear up against it again. Then there was a very loud banging noise; it was Stein slamming against the door.

"Get away from me!" Stein yelled out as loud he could. His father had formed again, and was now standing in front of him. He started getting closer to him.

"Get back!" He yelled again, at an even louder volume than last time. Spirit started sweating, and felt his stomach knot up. He started pounding on the door.

"Stein, what is going on in there?" As soon as he finished saying this, Stein let out a loud, terrible scream. His father had began cutting into him. More of the mixture of laughter and crying came out. He sounded as if he were in true pain, and was growing more hysterical by the second. Spirit had never heard a laugh that had pain in it until now.

Stein could tell by the look of pleasure on his father's face, that he was enjoying this immensely. There was so much blood everywhere. He felt so terrible. He felt as if he was going to pass out from the blood loss, and he was beginning to feel very weak. Because of this, he began to quiet down a bit, and this made Spirit wonder. Everything was dark, and had a very ominous feeling to it. Then his surroundings changed and he was in his father's lab.

He let out another scream. The wounds that had been there before were gone, but now he was on his father's operating table. His father picked up the scalpel, and began cutting away. There was one difference than the last dissection, however, and that was that his father didn't hold back. He drove the scalpel through Stein's abdomen, shoving with all his force, which was quite a lot considering how strong he was. Stein let out an agonizing scream.

Spirit screamed to Stein again, and pounded on the door a few more times, but it did absolutely nothing. He didn't know what was happening to him, if it was real or fake, but all he knew was that it was excruciating to Stein. He worried that he had began doing something to himself without even realizing it.

In reality he was not in his lab, but curled up in the corner of the room against the door, his head tucked down and hands covering it. He was, however, actually screaming, just as loud as he was experiencing it. His father pulled the scalpel out, only to shove it right back down.

* * *

Over the years, Mr. Collins had really grown to like Stein and Spirit. They had actually gotten pretty close to each other, so, naturally, Mr. Collins had always worried when the madness would start to get to Stein more than usual. He would always try to do what he could to help, and was extremely understanding about everything.

When he saw the way Stein had pulled Sid up in his face, total aggression taking over him, it worried him greatly. Not just because of the saftey of Sid, but also because he feared what it could lead to. He didn't want Stein to have to go through that, and the thought of it pained him. Stein was actually a very nice kid if you got to know him well, and he honestly wasn't bad to be around. Mr. Collins greatly enjoyed getting to work with him every day, and didn't want to see that end any sooner than it had to.

He sat at home, and couldn't stop thinking about what had happened; the way Stein stormed off, the fact that he hadn't gone to the rest of his classes. It had been just over an hour since everyone, including the teachers, had left, and the entire time he sat thinking at his house.

He got up off the couch he was sitting on, and turn off his TV. He set the remote down on the coffee table and turned off the floor lamp he had sitting near the couch. Walking over to a table that sat next to his door, he grabbed his house key, and opened the door after doing so. He shut it behind him, and turned to lock it. After it was locked he started down his stairs and went down the road.

It had been fairly nice out today, so the sun was out and there was a slight breeze. He tried to go at a fairly fast pace, as to make sure he didn't take too long. This was making him too anxious, building up a nervous kind of energy in him; an energy that he hadn't felt in quite some time.

He looked out to see Stein and Spirit's house, and his worries doubled. It wasn't that he saw anything out of place, it was just the thought of everything that could have went wrong. The reason as to why he knew were their house was, is that he had helped them moved all of their stuff into the house when they first moved in. He offered to help, and they gladly allowed him to.

He got up to their house and went to the door. He knocked a few times, and stood for a bit. Spirit heard the knocking, and was confused. He definitely wasn't expecting anyone to come, and he didn't know who would want to. He heard Stein let out another scream, and was reluctant to leave, but he did. He got to the door and opened it, seeing Mr. Collins standing outside.

"Oh, hello, Mr. Collins. What are you doing here?" Spirit asked.

"Well, Stein didn't show up for the rest of his classes, and I was worried."

"Oh, well would you like to come in?" Spirit said this as he stepped slightly to the side.

"Yeah, thank you." He walked into the living room, and heard a faint noise, but didn't know what it was.

"I am guessing you are wondering where he is."

"Yeah, I am. It's just that whole fight with Sid and the way he stormed off has been bothering me. I don't want anything to happen to him, or anyone else for that matter."

"I know that you care. It's nice to see someone for once that doesn't run away from him but actually tries to help. Other than you, me, Marie and Kami, it isn't something that's very commonly seen."

"They just haven't gotten to know him, that's all."

"He isn't exactly the easiest person to get to know," Spirit said.

"I know, but they could at least try a little harder than what they do."

"Yeah, it sure would be nice. Maybe then he wouldn't be such a grouch," Spirit said this, having an almost teasing tone of voice.

"Or it could have the opposite effect," Mr. Collins said.

"It very well could. It's hard to tell with that kid."

"It sure is."

"Yeah... So you were wondering where he is?"

"Yeah, I was."

"He is back here in his room," Spirit said this, pointing to the hallway that his room was back in. He led Mr. Collins to and down the hallway, and as they got closer the noise he had been hearing got louder. When they got up to the door, he realized it was Stein screaming.

"What's going on in there?" Mr. Collins asked this with a very concerned look on his face and tone in his voice.

"I wish I could tell you. He has been like this for a while, actually."

"You didn't do anything?"

"I really couldn't. He has the door locked, and it won't budge. I yelled to him quite a lot and banged on the door, but it didn't help at all." They stood for a minute, then another scream came through.

Stein was mauled, and hanging onto life as hard as he could. He was in shreds and covered in blood; the sticky liquid covered everything around them. His father was abosolutely drenched, and his scalpel was beginning to look repulsive. He laughed at the look of complete terror and pain on Stein's face. Stein was still just on the floor in front of the door.

Mr. Collins and Spirit stood on the other side, and the sound of laughter came through. Mr. Collins had actually never heard him laugh at this point, and he couldn't believe just how insane it sounded. It was so twisted and disturbing, but yet Spirit was basically used to the sound of it by now. It still freaked him out, but it was a fear that was familiar to him.

"When class ended, I rushed home to see where he was. He wasn't in his room, and he wasn't in any other part of the house either. The first place I thought to check was the woods, so I went out looking for him. Before finding him, I found a maimed fox, and a squirrel that he definitely caused some damage to..."

"What did he do to it?"

"By the looks of it, he gouged out it's eyes, shoved the scalpel through its skull, stabbed it repeatedly, and cut out its heart." Mr. Collins looked absolutely disgusted. "I found the heart laying off to the side, and he appeared to have ripped it apart."

"I don't even want to picture that..." He seemed like he was going to be sick.

"Then I don't suppose you want to hear what I have to say next."

"What is it?"

"You asked. When I found Stein, he was surrounded by blood and guts. It was everywhere. He had taken down a deer, and the bite marks Stein had on him showed that it wasn't as easy as the rabbit and fox had been. He had cut out every single one of its organs, and ripped them apart by hand. He also cut out its eyes, and then cut them in half. The thing had slice marks covering its entire body, and in places he had began to tear muscle and tissue out. You could literally see it still attached to the deer, hanging out."

"I think I have heard enough about the deer... But what happened after that?" After he asked this, Stein went into another fit of laughter. Spirit just started talking over him after a few seconds.

"He tried to attack me multiple times. At first he started yelling, but nothing he said made sense. They were coherent sentences, but none of them even had to do with anything. Later on he started grabbing at and cutting through thin air. During one of the times he tried to attack me, he told me he was going to cut my eyes out, slice them in two, cut out my heart, and stab me..."

"Oh Death..." Mr. Collins was astonished at what he was saying. He thought he had seen Stein when he was being effected by the kishin's madness wavelengths, but he now knew that he had seen nothing in comparison.

"One time, I knocked the scalpel out of his hands. Before he went to grab it, he shot his wavelength through me... It didn't feel normal, but really twisted. And after he grabbed it, he tried to shove it through my skull. Luckily I had ducked in time, because if not he would have got me for sure. He ended up having to pull it out of the tree, right from where my head was.

"Then after he tried cutting through nothing some more, he just started walking towards the house. It seemed like he was almost following something. After we got out of the woods, the thing probably disappeared because he began frantically searching for it. A bit later he turned around so he was basically facing me, and you should have seen the terror in his eyes.

"He just started running for his life up to the house. He sprinted through and to his room, screamed, and slammed the door shut. Then ever since then, this is bascially what he has been doing. I have never seen him so hysterical."

"Oh wow... I wouldn't have expected him to get that bad, especially being that he was perfectly fine all day up until the fight." He was starting to feel bad that he had them fight; he felt like it was his fault.

"I know, that's what shocks me too. I have no clue why this happened."

"I bet it was the fight. It got him going. I shouldn't have had students go against each other."

"It wasn't your fault. There was no way for you to know that would happen. Really, you don't need to blaming yourself for this," Spirit said this, trying to assure Mr. Collins that he didn't need to feel guilty.

Before he could say anything, Stein started laughing at an extremely loud volume. It kind of shocked Mr. Collins; he didn't expect it at all. Stein saw that he was about to die, he could feel the life pouring out of him. From going through mental and physical strain for this long, he was becoming exhausted. Stein stopped laughing, and was just lying on the ground. To him, he had just died from everything his father had done to him. But he was really lying there with his eyes closed, and had begun to drift off into sleep.

Mr. Collins and Spirit didn't say anything, but they stood there for a bit trying to determine what he was doing in there. Mr. Collins used his soul perception, and saw that he was still at the door. He saw that Spirit had been right; his soul was twisted, dirty, and he could tell it was being consumed by the madness. It felt weird to him just seeing his soul. He couldn't even imagine going through what Stein was experiencing, and he didn't even know everything that was happening.

It had been quite some time since he had made any kind of noise, and Mr. Collins couldn't feel him moving. This really got them wondering, and a little worried, to be perfectly honest. So Mr. Collins looked at his soul another time, then offered to help Spirit a bit.

"If you want, I can try and pick the lock so we can get it. If he does happen to become violent, I should be able to handle him."

"Sure, we might as well try. We can't be of much help if we are on the other side, and he is going to have to come out at some time. Do you think you could do it with a paper clip?"

"Yeah, I should be able to get it with that," Mr. Collins said this as he bent down and looked at the door knob, trying to look inside. Spirit walked over to his room, and went in. He went over to the desk he had, and got a paper clip for Mr. Collins to use. Once he had it he went back out of his room and gave it to Mr. Collins, who was still examining the lock.

"Do you want to stand back in case he would try to attack?"

"No, I am fine," Spirit said this, having a tone in his voice that showed he really was fine with staying.

Mr. Collins grabbed the paper clip from Spirit, and stuck it into the door knob. He began trying to feel the pins that were in the cylinder of the lock. He felt around, and eventually he got the door to unlock. He slowly turned the knob, as to make sure he made as little noise as possible. He began to push the door open, and could start to see Stein's legs. At peaking his head in to take a look, he saw Stein lying on the floor sleeping.

"He is just sleeping now," Mr. Collins said this, turned his head back to look at Spirit as he did so. Mr. Collins opened the door as much as he could without bumping it into the boy, and stepped into his room. Spirit went in after him, and looked down to see his parnter sleeping, still covered in dried up blood. His scalpel was just lying on the floor a couple feet away from him, and was coated in blood. He picked it up and walked over to put it on the table Stein used for dissections.

"I guess I'm gonna have to wash my hands later," he said this, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Yeah, I would if I were you." He had a disgusted look on his face, but tried to wipe it off as he looked back down at Stein.

He was so calm now, especially in comparison to what he had been like for the past few hours. His breathing was fairly steady, and he was finally somewhat relaxed. It slightly relieved the two that were with him to see this. They just stood for a minute watching him, then Mr. Collins said something.

"Do you think we should leave him there to sleep, or do you want me to try to pick him up and set him in his bed?"

"You can try if you want to, but I am not entirely sure that he will stay asleep. But there is one thing I am certain of: If he does wake up, he will not react very well."

"Oh yeah, that's for sure. But I just feel like it would be kind of weird to just leave him there."

"Go ahead," Spirit said this, stepping back and pointing to Stein.

"Here goes nothing." Mr. Collins sighed, and bent down to pick up Stein. Spirit stepped out of the room in fear of his parnter waking up and panicking, which he knew could very well happen. Mr. Collins scooped the boy up in his arms, and lifted him up. His head drooped back, showing that he was definitely asleep, at least for the time being. He carried the boy over to his bed, and sat him down as gentally as he possibly could. He didn't make a single move.

Mr. Collins just walked out of the room and shut the door, leaving the boy to sleep. He turned to see Spirit standing just outside the door, waiting to see how it went.

"So I'm guessing everything is fine?"

"Yep. He's out cold."

"That's the second day in a row that he has slept like this. Usually you can't get him to sleep at all."

"Well, it's probably a good thing that he is sleeping now then."

"That's definitely true. He needs to catch up on his sleep; it isn't healthy for him to get so little. I don't know how he does all the studying that he does. I would pass out if I were to try that."

"Does he study much?"

"Oh yeah," Spirit said this in a voice that made it obvious that he studied a little too much. "It's practically all he does besides experiments and dissections."

"He's one complex kid."

"Tell me about it." Mr. Collins huffed slightly in response.

"Well, I am not sure I can really do anything else to help for now. I better get going."

"Okay, thanks getting the door open. I seriously doubt he would have opened it himself."

"It was no problem, and you're probably right. It wouldn't be very likely that he would have." There was a very brief pause, and then he continued. "Listen, if there's anything you ever need or if something goes wrong, you can always call me."

"Thanks. I really appreciate it." After he said this, Mr. Collins and Spirit walked to the door, and the older of the two stepped outside.

"Like I said, it's no problem. You and Stein are excellent students and very nice kids; I just worry about you guys." There was another short pause. "It is almost certain that he won't be able to come to class tomorrow, so I want you to stay with him and watch over him. He really shouldn't be left alone right now. I hope to see him back as soon as possible, but he can take as much time off as he needs to."

"I will make sure I watch over him; and thank you for being so understanding."

"Same to you. Most partners wouldn't be able to handle this like you are. Stein is lucky to have you as a partner." After he said this, he turned and went down the stairs onto the road. Spirit watched the man walk down the road for a bit, then shut the door and went back down the hall.

He opened Stein's door and looked in at his partner. He was still lying there sleeping, and then he turned onto his side. It startled Spirit at first, but then he relaxed after he saw that he was just turning over. Stein began to snore a little.

Spirit shut the door, and went back to his room to play some video games while Stein slept. He thought that since his room was just down the hall, he would hear if he were to do anything. Also, he might as well do something during the time that he doesn't have to be watching over him. He would go check on him again in a little bit.

Although he knew it wasn't very likely, he hoped that when he woke up he would be himself again. He hated having a constant feeling of worry all the time. He worried that Stein would do something to someone, and he also worried about what Stein was experiencing. He thought it was very unfair for this to happen, and it made him angry. But he tried to look past his worries so he could help Stein as much as possible.

* * *

Stein laid in bed, and continued to snore. He was actually sleeping well, but then he had another nightmare. It started out that he was in the woods outside the academy. He was fighting Sid, with Mr. Collins supervising. Everything was colored red; it wasn't blood, but that was just the color of his surroundings.

Everything felt like it was twisted, evil, and mad. Just like he had many times throughout the day, he felt light headed and like he was going to pass out. But he still fought Sid with extreme agility, and he dodged shot after shot. He could tell that he was tiring out Sid, and that soon he would be able to take him down.  
He ran up to Sid, and thrust his fist into his abdomen. His wavelength shot through him at an abnormally powerful level, and it practically paralyzed his opponent. Sid tried to get away from Stein, but he could barely move at all. Stein got up to him, grinned, and went into a fit of maniacal laughter. Sid began to shake, and everyone else there was beginning to get scared of what he would do.

Stein laughed and giggled more as he brought the scythe up in the air and above his head. He looked down at Sid with a large grin, and brought the blade down as hard as he could onto the kid below him. He dragged it down at the current depth, and he completely sliced the kid open. He lifted the scythe up and slashed open the boy's throat, laughing more as he did it.

Mr. Collins wanted to stop him, but he knew he couldn't do anything to stop Stein from attacking him if he were to; he didn't even have a weapon. He could have tried to reach Azusa, but it wasn't likely that he would get to her in time. Even if he did, he wasn't sure if he could win against him anyway.

Stein sliced open different parts of his body, and finished off by dragging the scythe through his heart. Once he finished, he laughed to himself a bit. Then he turned to Mr. Collins, and he wanted him next. He just walked up to him, which had confused the man greatly. Then Stein just stood for minute, looking almost as if he were himself again. But then without the man expecting, Stein swung the blade at him. He had only moved out of the way slightly, so there was a very deep gash in his arm now.

Blood began to pour out and drip to the ground. Mr. Collins winced in pain, and knew he had to think of some way to get away from this maniac. He knew he wouldn't stop until he got him, he wouldn't give up until he got to see the life pour out of him just as he had seen with Sid minutes ago. Stein laughed, thinking about the wonderful liquid that coursed through his body; the liquid that he wished would stop flowing, but instead be out and visible for him to gaze at with pleasure.

It was that thrilling, exhilarating pleasure nothing else gave him. He loved it. The rush and the excitement that came with it. The accompanying euphoria, and the feeling of power; a power to do and see whatever he pleases, no matter what restrictions the rules pose. A feeling like he is light as air, and free.

Stein laughed as he raised the scythe again.

"Stein!" Spirit yelled, while Mr. Collins shook.

He brought it down as hard as possible, and at a speed too fast for the man to move out of the way on time.

Stein's eyes flew open, and he rolled over onto his other side as he doubled over in laughter. He could barely breathe, but the loud hysteria just kept on coming. Spirit heard this almost instantly, so he threw down his controller and ran to the boy's room, seeing him gasp for air in between laughs, sweat rolling down his face that was half covered by hair.

Spirit ran over to Stein and grabbed onto his shoulders, completely forgetting what he could do to him. He realized the danger he put himself in after he grabbed on, but lucky for him Stein didn't try to do anything to him. He just kept shaking in Spirit's hands, insane laughter never ceasing to pour out.

"Stein!" he yelled for him multiple times. He didn't seem to hear him, and he just looked at him with wide eyes as he gasped for air again. Spirit kept holding onto his shoulders, and Stein kept convulsing. After quite a bit of this, the hysterical laughter died down to quite giggles, and his shoulders only shuddered in Spirit's arms. Then he just stopped, and his eyes met Spirit's. And they actually appeared to be normal behind the gray and blood stained hair.

They didn't say anything, but just sat and looked at each other while Spirit still held onto his partner. Then all of the sudden, Stein's eyes shot to the corner of the room and over Spirit's shoulder. He began to tremble, and Spirit could feel it. There was an over-sized, deadly spider up in the corner of the room, and it had a large web spun. It was sitting on the web, looking down at Stein, hoping to eat him soon.

The spider hung off a web, and got to the ground. It began crawling over, its huge legs making pounding noises every time it stepped down. It ran, and got closer and closer. Stein began jerking and trying to get from Spirit's grasp as he shook his head back and forth.

"No! No!" Stein began screaming. Spirit just held onto him, knowing that he was just seeing things. Stein tried to back up, but Spirit kept him in place.

"No!" The spider got up to Stein, and because he was sitting in bed and the spider was very tall, it almost towered over him. He looked up at it with extremely wide and frantic eyes, and began to convulse a bit. He tried to jerk back again, but Spirit refused to let go.

The spider went around Stein and began to wrap him in its web. He was completely still from fear. When he was completely wrapped in the webs, he looked up at the spider above him, and then slowly looked back down at Spirit, a single giggle escaping.

The spider and webs all disappeared, and he was left with Spirit holding onto him. It was then that he realized none of the things that had happened earlier had ever really happened. He could almost start to feel some sanity return, but that was quickly over with.

Stein felt someone behind him, but he was too afraid to turn and look. He knew who it was. The man stuck his right hand on Stein's back, and shivers went down his spine. He could feel the man almost against him, and he put elbow almost against Stein's other shoulder. He dragged the scalpel he had down Stein's face, and he could begin to feel blood roll down under his chin. His eyes began to water slightly, and Spirit could tell.

"Help me," Stein said this in a low voice that trembled, fear and almost sadness showing in his half covered eyes.

**Poor Stein... But anyway, I will get started on the new one tonight. Adios.**


	13. Like Father Like Son

**Alright, now this day is done... **

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 13 Like Father Like Son

Spirit was at a loss of words. He knew that there really was nothing he could do for him, no matter how badly he wanted to help. So he just held on, trying to think of something he could say or do that would at least do something. Judging by the look in Stein's eyes, whatever it was that he was seeing or feeling wasn't going away. He wished there was some way; somehow this would all be done.

Stein sat, looking at Spirit. He could still feel the scalpel pressed against his face, his father's hand on his shoulder and elbow pressed against him. More blood poured out and ran down his face, a drop falling to the floor. When he tried to move slightly in an attempt to get away from his father, he tightened his grip on him and pressed down on the scalpel harder. He winced.

Spirit lightened his grip, but only by a little bit. He was hoping that the way he was holding onto him would have a sort of comforting affect, give him the feeling that he cared and felt concerned. It was a little hard for Stein to notice it much from the way his father was up to him. The boy began to shake very slightly in his hands, but not nearly as badly as he had the other times.

"Kill him," his father commanded, leaning down so his face was right next to Stein's.

"No," Stein said shaking his head slightly, "I can't."

"Yes you can. You just have to convince him you're sane. If trick him well enough, you'll have no problem getting to him."

"I can't. I won't," Stein refused. His father pressed down even harder, now to the point that a good deal of the blade was in his skin. This brought tears to Stein's eyes, and more blood down his face.

"Yes, you will." His voice sounded stern and menacing, like something bad would happen if he didn't. Stein began to shake a little more, but the idea of cutting into Spirit began to sound rather appealing to him.

"See, I know you want to," his father said, almost as if he could read his mind. "Remember, you just have to make him believe you." Stein's eyes widened slightly as he realized what he was thinking, that he really wanted to kill him. His father seemed to have sensed this, for he drug the blade down fast and hard, causing more pain to the boy.

"I said you have to convince him." After his father said this, he began to want it again. His eyes became less wide, and he stopped shaking. "Good."

Stein loosened himself as to make it appear as if he were more relaxed. Spirit noticed the change in him, so he let go of his grip a little more. Stein looked him in the eye, making sure that there was no trace of madness showing in his. The sudden look of sanity surprised Spirit, but it pleased him and made him feel more relieved.

"Stein, how are you feeling?" Spirit asked this, hoping for a positive response.

"I am feeling fine now," Stein said this, doing so in a way that he would sound calm.

"Are you sure?" His father put the blade on a spot next to the first cut he had made, showing that he would hurt him if Spirit were doubting him.

"Yeah, I really am," he said, managing to sound relatively sane again. Spirit smiled at him, and Stein's father released his grip slightly at knowing he believed him.

"I am glad to hear that. You don't know how much you have been worrying me."

"Sorry that I worried you."

"It's fine. I know you can't do anything about it, and as long as you are fine; that's what really matters, not whether I am at ease or not." His father let go of him, but Stein could still feel that he was there.

"Well, you don't have to worry anymore." Stein said this, and his father disappeared. His voice, however, was still there in the back of his mind.

"Good, he believes you." His laughter began to echo. "This is what you need; you know it is." To please him, Stein did not say anything back.

"Could you let go of me now?" Stein asked in his regular bland tone.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Spirit let go, and as soon as he did, Stein stood up. He took a couple steps from the bed, keeping himself as calm as he could. Spirit looked up at him, completely fooled.

"It's fine," he said this, turning to face his dissection table.

"Mr. Collins will be really glad to hear you're doing better. He came by earlier to see how you were doing."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah, he said that he was worried since you didn't show up for class."

"That was nice of him." Stein saw his scalpel lying on the table, and noticed that it still had blood covering it. He walked over to the table and picked it up.

"I guess I'm going to need to clean this off, huh?" He picked up the scalpel, turning it over to look at the other side.

"Yeah, that thing's disgusting."

"Do you mind if I go clean it off? Maybe we can go get something to eat afterward."

"I would prefer if you cleaned it; the thing has to be covered in germs. And sure thing, we can have whatever you want."

"Okay, I shouldn't take too long." As he said this, he began to walk over to the area where the door was.

"Do it!" his father yelled. The madness began to increase, and Stein had to try to keep himself from showing any signs of it. He actually managed to keep Spirit believing his ruse, and this even impressed himself a bit.

He walked over to the point that he was behind Spirit, and right before the boy began to turn around he wrapped his right arm around his neck. He pulled it against him hard enough that it constricted his airway, so he began to gasp. Spirit reached his hands up to Stein's arm, trying to pull it off. Stein just pulled him back from the bed and onto his feet, squeezing a little harder.

He brought his left arm, the one that held onto the scalpel, up to the boy's face. Spirit tried to yell to Stein, but all that came out was strangled noises. Stein's father appeared standing next to them.

"What are you waiting for?" his father asked. Stein pushed the blade onto Spirit's skin, which caused him to jerk in an effort to get away. It did no good, for he only brought the blade slowly down his face. Spirit could feel blood start to poor out, and he was honestly terrified. Tears began to run down his face, and he started gasping even more. Stein brought the scalpel up to his head, and Spirit began to get lightheaded from the lack of air.

Spirit transformed his arm into a blade, and brought it up to Stein's chin. He kept the scalpel at Spirit's head, but did not move. Spirit stuck the blade on his skin, meaning that if he does anything he will slice him. Stein just grinned, and began laughing quietly.

Spirit could feel himself start to become unconscious, and he was scared beyond believe. He pressed the blade into Stein lightly as he kicked Stein from behind him in the legs, trying to scream again while doing so. Like last time, no words managed to come out. He could feel Stein's grip loosen very slightly from the blade at his neck, so he pressed a little harder. The blade was beginning to cut into his skin, and he could feel it. He knew he had to try something else, a different plan. Therefore, he let go of Spirit, shoving him forward as he did so.

Spirit wiped the blood off his face, even though he knew more would just come out. He grabbed onto his neck, as it hurt very badly from having that much pressure applied to it. After catching his breath, he noticed how Stein was just standing there looking at him. He looked normal again. Spirit's arm transformed back to normal, but he knew he still could not let his guard down. He knew that he could very well trick him again; however, he did not know that he already had.

Stein thrust the scalpel forward, madness reappearing in his eyes instantly. Spirit ducked and stepped to the side, turning to run out of the room as soon as he got out of the way of the knife. Stein watched as he fled in terror, and began laughing at this. He grinned and started his way out of the room, only to see Spirit shut the door to his room.

He started toward the boy's room, finding out that the door was locked when he got there. He tried to turn the knob multiple times, but soon gave up when he knew it would not budge.

Spirit remembered that Mr. Collins said he could call if something were to happen, so he grabbed his phone and started dialing the man's number. He was halfway through dialing it when Spirit heard a loud noise, looking up only to see his door breaking into pieces. Stein stood in front of the doorway grinning, green electricity surrounding his hand.

Stein walked in, and tried to grab Spirit. The boy just ducked and ran under his extended arm, and burst out of the room. Stein turned around and began to follow him. He saw Spirit go through the living room, and open the door running out into the back yard. Stein walked at a fast pace through the same way the other boy had, and got outside. Spirit was running around the side of the house, and out to the front.

Spirit ran to a bush that was on the other side of the front of the house, and crouched down behind it. He started dialing the number again, and actually managed to do it completely this time. He began to hear it ring, and he could hear Stein start to get close to the bush.

Mr. Collins was sitting on his couch watching TV, and his phone began to ring. A confused look came across his face, and he picked it up to see who would be calling him. He heard Spirit breathing heavily, and Stein laughing in the background. He instantly froze up.

"Spirit? What's wrong?" he asked, obvious fear showing in his voice.

"I need you to come over here now. Stein is trying to kill me." he heard come from the other end, along with more heavy breathing.

"Okay, I will be there in a minute."

"Hurry!" he heard Spirit yell, more laughter coming through after.

He hung up his phone, throwing it down on the couch. He got up and slipped out the door, then ran down his stairs as fast as he could without causing himself to trip. He began sprinting down the road, cursing to himself.

"Damn it!" he yelled, running as fast as he possibly could.

Spirit ran out from behind the bushes, and around to the back of the house. Stein ran from the other side, hoping Spirit would be at the end of the wall when he got there so he would have a very little chance of getting away. When he got to the side, he was running through the back door. Therefore, he went over to the door, and went through it. The other boy was trying to hide in the bathroom, but Stein knew it would be no problem to get into.

Spirit was trying to catch his breath, panting and holding onto his knees. He heard laughter come from the other side, and quickly straightened up. Soon Stein was kicking the door in with his foot. He got it open on the third kick, and ran through to Spirit. Spirit began to shake because he knew that because the bathroom was so small, he was cornered.

Stein tried to grab the boy, but when he did, he punched him as hard as he could in the face. Stein could feel blood start to drip out, and his nose began to throb. He just ignored it, though, and turned to see the red head go through the door. Stein rushed out and into his own room, where the other boy went. Spirit was standing in the corner, so he just blocked him from moving. The corner had his dissection table, so he realized this would make things easier for him.

Spirit began shaking when he heard Stein's laugh, and even more when he saw him reach over to a tray that sat next to his dissection table. He grabbed a needle from it, and shoved it into Spirit's neck, injecting the chemicals into him. He began to laugh even more as he dropped to the floor, landing at Stein's feet.

Mr. Collins ran in to see Spirit on the floor in the corner, and Stein with the needle in his hand. He did not know what he had just injected into him, so this scared him a lot. Stein turned to face Mr. Collins, and threw the needle to the side as he walked towards him. He tried to hit Mr. Collins with his wavelength, but he grabbed Stein's other arm and brought it to behind the boy's back. Stein clenched his teeth, and used the other arm to elbow his teacher in the ribs.

Mr. Collins winced, but he kept holding onto Stein. Stein tried to kick him from behind, but could not quite get him. Mr. Collins grabbed onto his head and pushed the boy down onto the ground, in a way as to make sure he did not hurt him too much in the process. Once he got Stein on the ground, he kept his arm behind his back, but stepped on it to keep it down instead. After he got him down, Stein began to giggle from under him.

Mr. Collins reached over to his dissection table, grabbing a needle. The label showed that it was an anesthetic, so he got it and injected it into Stein. Stein stopped laughing, and he was out cold. Mr. Collins lifted his foot off his arm, and picked up the other needle that was on the floor. He sat both on the table, and looked down at both boys.

"I suppose if someone were to come in right now this wouldn't look too good," Mr. Collins said aloud. He first picked up Stein, sitting him down in his bed. Then he picked up Spirit, and carried him out of the other boy's room. He walked down the hall, stopping a couple times to readjust himself so he would not drop him, and soon got to his room. He stepped over the pieces of wood from the broken door, and sat him down. He sighed when he looked at the door again.

He knew that, judging from how Stein could just break through the doors, Spirit was in danger. He did not know what they could do about it, but he knew it was definitely an issue. After he walked out to their living room, he sat down on their couch. He wanted to wait for them to wake up, that way he could make sure Stein did not just start all over again.

He sat there, and after about thirty minutes, he began to fall asleep. He kept dozing off, and every now and then his head would snap back up or he would jerk awake. Eventually he was out, and stayed out. As he began to snore, he fell over on their couch into a lying position. In his sleep, he picked his feet off the ground and curled up on their couch, turning so he was facing away from the room.

In another half hour, Spirit woke up in his room. He sat up, looking towards his door. He remembered what had happened, and remembered that Mr. Collins was supposed to be coming. He got up and walked out of his room, going over to see Stein still sleeping in his bed. After he shut the boy's door, he went out to see Mr. Collins on the couch, curled up and asleep as well.

"Mr. Collins," Spirit said this as he poked the man in the arm a few times. Spirit stepped back as he began to turn over. He turned too far, and ended up falling onto the floor on his back. He sat up, seeing Spirit standing in front of him.

"Oh, Spirit."

"How did Stein-"

"Same way as you. When I got here, you were unconscious in front of him. He tried to attack me, but I ended it fairly quickly."

"How did you manage to deal with _him_ quickly? I want details." Mr. Collins got off the floor and sat back on the couch.

"Well, when he went after me he tried to shoot his wavelength into me. I grabbed onto his other arm and twisted it behind his back. Using my other arm I pushed him to the ground, grabbed one of his needles, and injected him with it. After that, I moved both of you to your beds. There really isn't anything else to it."

"Oh, I wouldn't have figured it would have been that easy."

"I really didn't either. But hey, I'm not complaining."

"Yeah... And how exactly did you end up asleep?"

"I was just trying to wait here for you guys to get up, and I ended up dozing off... Listen, Spirit, as you probably already know from today, there is not much stopping Stein from getting to you. I don't know what we are going to do about it, but it puts you in danger since he basically has the ability to get to you whenever."

"I know. He breaks through those doors like it's nothing."

"It is nothing to him, and that's a problem."

"And there is also the fact that I don't always know how he is. The first time he tried to get me, he said that he was feeling fine and looked like he always did. He saw his scalpel and said that he should clean it off. When he went to clean, he went behind me and got ahold of me."

"So he tricked you... We'll have to be careful about that."

"Yeah, we definitely will. And it looks like I am going to need a new door; there's nothing to even slow him down without one."

"If you want I can run out to get one, or you could go and I'll stay here with Stein. Whichever you'd prefer."

"Considering the trouble I was having before and the way you handled him, it would probably be best if you stayed here."

"Alright, you're probably right in saying that." As Mr. Collins said this, Spirit went back and got his wallet from his room. He stepped back over the pile of wood, and went to the living room.

"I think it would help if the pieces of door weren't back there; they're getting in the way."

"Yeah, I'll take care of that while you're out."

"Thanks, I appreciate you helping. I'll be back soon."

"It's no problem. And okay, see you later."

Spirit walked out of the house and started down the road, sighing to himself while doing so. Almost right after he left, Stein began to wake up. He saw that he was now in his bed again, and remembered why he was. He was furious with Mr. Collins for the fact that he had been so close; he had Spirit lying at his feet, not able to do a single thing to stop him.

He heard Mr. Collins get up and go back to Spirit's room, and could tell that he began to pick up the pieces of broken wood. Something else he could hear was him getting a garbage bag to put it all in. He used his soul perception, and saw that Spirit was not there anymore. He sat up in bed, and leaned against the wall, bringing his knees up to his chest. Then he began to hear the noise in the back of his head grow louder and louder, reaching an almost painful volume. He turned the screw a few times hoping it would go away, but that time it did nothing.

As he brought his hand down, he tilted his head back so it was against the wall. He looked up at the ceiling, and just stared for a few minutes. When he brought his head back down, he looked to his left, only to see something charging at him. It had no definite shape, but it was black and had an ominous look to it. A loud, indescribable noise came out of it as it raced up beside Stein. The boy jerked his head to his right and looked back seeing that it was gone. A single giggle came out.

He looked at the wall that was directly in front of him, and a wolf began to take form and slowly come out from inside the wall. It stood and watched Stein, while he watched it with a blank gaze. The wolf put one of its front paws up, planted it down firmly, backed up slightly, and sprung forward. It jumped into the air, and Stein watched, as it got right in front of his face growling. It was gone in a second, and Stein started laughing quietly at seeing this.

All of the sudden, hundreds of centipedes came crawling from under his bed. He could hear them crawl across the floor, and start to come up the legs of his bed. He felt something start to come up his back and onto his shoulder. It quickly crawled across his neck, and he brushed it off seeing it fall to the end of his bed. After this, all of the other centipedes began to climb up on his bed as well. They began running toward Stein, sometimes stepping over each other in the process.

The noises from them walking started combining with the noise in his head, amplifying both at the same time. He brought his hands up to his ears, but quickly took them off when multiple of them began to climb up his legs. He started trying to brush them off, but more just kept coming onto him and some were beginning to creep up his back. He wanted to scream, but instead laughter came out.

They began going up his arms, and no matter how much he brushed them off it did not do him any good. He felt one climbing on his skin, and saw that one had gotten under his lab coat and was working its way up his arm. He jumped off his bed, and threw his coat off. He started violently sweeping them off himself, and he could start to feel them crawl up the top of his neck and onto his head. He quickly ran his fingers through his hair, feeling the centipede attach to his hand as he did so. He shook his hand and the bug flew off.

Mr. Collins had just came in from taking the bag of wood pieces out to the trash can, and as he shut the door he could hear faint laughter. He knew Stein was awake now, so he started back the hall to see what he was doing. When he walked in he saw Stein's coat on the floor, and the boy standing there brushing himself off. He knew that he was just hallucinating and that he could not do anything about it, but he still wanted to try something. He walked in front of Stein.

"Hey, Stein," Mr. Collins said to the boy, seeing how wide his eyes were. Stein did not seem to notice him in the slightest. He began to back up, and hit the wall when he had gone as far as he could. Mr. Collins just got up to him again.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He thought that maybe if he could get Stein to tell him what was going on, he would be able to tell him otherwise and get him to realize that it, whatever it was, was not real.

"Centipedes... They're everywhere!" Stein yelled as he brushed one from off his face.

"Stein, there are no centipedes," he said this, using as calm a tone as he possibly could.

"Yes, there are!" Stein began to move forward, so the older of the two stepped off to the side. The younger one walked backwards, inching towards the door until he felt himself hit something. He froze, and then turned around to see his father with a scalpel. He stepped back, feeling the little bugs crawl all over him. He still brushed them off, but not as fast now that he was distracted.

"Why haven't you done it yet? You can take him down easily; I know you are capable of it. It's time you start doing what you want to do, not what _they_ want you to do." Stein began to laugh again, but this time it sounded more hysterical, almost panicked.

"Take him down. Get your scalpel. Cut into him. Watch his blood spill out." Stein dropped to the floor, crawling over to where he would be next to his bed. His arms went over his head, and he was practically in a ball on the floor. Mr. Collins walked over and crouched down next to Stein.

"Hey, Stein. What's wrong?" He placed a hand on Stein's arm.

"No!" He jerked away, feeling the centipedes continue to scrabble over him, one going over his ear. He brushed it off, and heard it hit not the ground, but instead other surrounding bugs.

"Hey, listen-"

"No!" Mr. Collins pulled Stein's arms off his head, and held onto him.

"Listen. There are no centipedes. Concentrate. There are no centipedes. Just imagine them going away; they'll leave you alone." After he said this, Stein started trying to focus on the thought of them not being there. They were not crawling on him anymore, and he lifted his head.

"See." Mr. Collins smiled at him. Stein did not want to look at him, so his eyes started wondering to everywhere else. Mr. Collins could see this.

"I know that this is really hard on you. You just have to hold on. I know you can get past this; you're a very strong kid. I just need you to promise me that you will try your best not to hurt anyone, no matter how badly you want to. Do you think you can do that?" After he finished asking this, Stein looked at him in the eye.

"Yeah."

Mr. Collins kept smiling, and it was almost comforting in a way to Stein.

"Can I just ask something else of you?"

"What is it?" he asked in a low voice.

"What did you run into earlier? It really seemed to have freaked you out."

"It was my father," he said this, looking away after.

"What was he doing?" Stein did not answer for a bit, but then he looked back up at Mr. Collins and answered.

"He told me to kill you," he said this in a voice that showed he hated his father's influence on him. Mr. Collins waited a few seconds before responding.

"Is he who told you to kill Spirit earlier?"

"Yeah, he did. He said that I just had to trick him, and then it would be very easy to get to him."

"Don't act as if it was entirely my fault. You know you could have stopped yourself," Stein could hear his father say in the back of his mind. He could almost start to feel his father's blade, so his eyes began to widen slightly. Mr. Collins saw this, so he grabbed onto Stein so that he was hugging him.

"You're strong." He let go of Stein, got up, and went out to the living room. Spirit had just come home, so he was going out to help him with everything.

"How is he?" Spirit asked as he handed everything to the man.

"He was having a little bit of trouble, but I think he is fine now." He started back down the hall to Spirit's room, and sat down the new door. Spirit went over to see Stein, but saw him just sitting, and sadness rushed over him briefly.

"Do you guys happen to have any tools?" Mr. Collins asked from down the hall.

"Yeah, they're just in the closet," Spirit said this, walking over to where Mr. Collins was.

"Good. I didn't want to have to get mine." He went around through the living room to the closet, and got everything that he would need. After he got back down, he took out the hinges that were there before for the old door. He looked back, seeing Spirit watch him.

"You can go do something if you want. You don't need to feel like you have to stay to keep me company, you know."

"Alright. It's getting late enough that maybe I could go make dinner... Stein usually does it, so I guess I'll have to just try."

"Have at it," Mr. Collins said this, finishing with taking off the last of the hinges.

"Just don't blame me if you end up with food poisoning." He walked off down the hall and toward the kitchen. He got out a cookbook, and looked for something basic considering it was his first time ever cooking.

After searching through the drawers, he finally had everything he would need to use to put the stuff in. Now he just had to get the actual ingredients out. He sighed to himself over the realization that he had no clue what he was doing, and was not patient enough to read through directions. He could already tell this would be torture.

* * *

Stein sat at the foot of his bed, and stared at the ground. He did not make any sounds, and he barely moved an inch. As he sat there, these _things_ formed. They looked almost like eyes with legs and feet, and were multicolored. They just kept scrabbling across the floor, moving around in front of the boy. He watched them, and his eyes moved around to follow the thing.

* * *

Spirit was about to spray a pan, but right before he did he felt the can slide out of his hand, and another one was placed in it. He turned around to see Mr. Collins holding the can Spirit had just a second ago.

"Spirit, this is furniture polish," he said this, and then pointed at the other can as he said the next part. "_That_ is cooking spray."

"Oh, thanks..." Spirit started spraying the pan, and quickly had the whole thing covered; then sat the can down on the counter top.

"What are you making?" he asked as he leaned into the counter.

"Macaroni and cheese. It had to be something basic, so I figured this would work."

"Now that you aren't going to poison us, yeah that will do just fine." Spirit blushed very slightly at almost poisoning them, but tried to hide it by shooting a light glare at the man.

"Hey, I was just trying to help," Mr. Collins said this as he began to back up, holding his arms out in a defensive manner to Spirit.

* * *

While he finished with the door, Spirit made dinner. Soon both of them were done, and Spirit was sitting everything on the table. He went back the hall to bring some to Stein.

"Hey, Stein, I brought you some food." He sat it on his desk, and Stein did not even look up at him. His eyes just kept going back and forth wherever the thing went. Spirit stood and watched him for a minute, feeling extremely bad. He walked out, and sat down near Mr. Collins.

"Get anything from him?" the man asked as he looked up at the redhead.

"Nope, nothing. He didn't even look up."

"Everything will be fine eventually; you just have to be patient."

"Yeah, I know."

They finished eating, and Mr. Collins helped Spirit with washing the dishes. After they had everything cleaned up, Spirit thanked Mr. Collins for everything he had done to help, and he went home. Spirit walked to Stein's room, and stood at the doorway. He saw how Stein was still just sitting there, doing nothing.

Stepping back from the doorway, he took a couple steps and sat down, leaning against the wall to the boy's room. He did not want to go off into his room, because he was honestly worried about him. That was the first time he had really gotten to sit down and do nothing, except for being unconscious, of course. His muscles began to relax, and he just sat for the rest of the evening, enjoying how quiet and peaceful it was, while Stein continued to sit and watch the thing scrabble around.

It was getting late, so he got up and went into his partner's room.

"Do you want this?" He picked up the plate of food, and held it out to Stein. Yet again, he did not take any notice of him. Spirit took that as a no, and brought it out to the kitchen. He cleaned off the plate, washed it and the fork, dried them off and put them away. Walking over to the sink, he drained the water out of it. When sitting outside the boy's room, he had begun to get tired; and combined with everything he had done today, he was pretty exhausted.

Before going to his room, he went to Stein's. He peaked his head in real quick.

"Goodnight, Stein. Don't stay up too late. I'll see you in the morning." He went over to his room, and climbed into bed after changing into lounge pants and a loose T-shirt. After he plopped down, he slipped his covers over himself and felt his muscles relax once again. He laid looking at the ceiling, and could start to feel his eyelids start to get heavy, and soon he was asleep.

* * *

After a while when it was close to 2:30 A.M., Stein's father appeared on the bed above him. He sat with his legs crossed, his arms resting on his knees, and chin supported by his hands.

"Stein," he whispered as he leaned down towards the boy. Stein stiffened, and sat up slightly, looking over his shoulders seeing his father.

"What do you want?" Stein asked in a low voice.

"What do you think I want?"

"He is my partner; I can't hurt him."

"Why not? It's what you want. He is asleep, so he wouldn't even have to know you cut into him. Just ensure that he won't wake up with one of those nifty needles that you have over there," he said this, pointing to the dissection table at the end. Stein got up, and walked over to the table. He picked up one of the needles, and used both hands to hold it and turn it over slightly. As he stared down at it, he could feel his father looking over his shoulders.

"You're debating it, aren't you?" he asked this with a sly tone to his voice and a slight smirk on his face. Stein continued to look down at the needle.

"With those chemicals coursing through his body, you're free to cut him up all you want. He's stupid enough that he wouldn't notice anyway."

"He's not stupid," Stein shot at him.

"Now I don't know about that."

"Just shut up." He went to look to his left to see his father, but he was not there; now he was to the right and almost in front of him.

"Think of all the blood you'll get to see, and everything that will be exposed for examination." Instantly, images began to flood Stein's mind. He grinned, and his father did directly after him. After picking up his still bloody scalpel, he wiped it off on his pants. As he started at the sharp blade of it, he began to crave the feeling of it sliding across skin. He began to get all anxious inside, and started trembling a bit. The grin grew.

"I'll do it." He sat the scalpel down and traded it for the needle.

"Good, Franken." This time he called him by his first name, which caused Stein to look at his father.

"Go."

He started out of his room, and had to grab onto the doorway as more images flooded his mind. Some brief laughter came out, but he quickly quieted himself as to make sure he did not wake Spirit. After standing up straight, he continued to the boy's room.

When he walked in, he saw Spirit lying half-tangled in his covers, his arm slung over his face. Stein walked up to Spirit, and turned his wrist over, injecting the anesthetic. He picked the boy up, and threw him over his shoulder, his arms dangling and swinging back and forth as he carried him back to his room. He sat him down on the table, and slid his shirt off, letting it drop to the ground after. Next, he strapped down his wrists and ankles; and then turned on the bright overhead lights.

He grabbed his scalpel, and brought it down on his side. He began to bring it down, and could see the blood start to come out where he had made the incisions. He pressed down harder on the spot it was at now, and more blood began to seep out. This excited him, enthralled him, and quiet laughter began to come out.

The blade kept going down, and he could start to see tissue. He sat his scalpel down, and picked up some forceps. He peeled back his skin slightly, and then grabbed another pair. Holding the skin back with the right pair, he used the left to lift up some muscle. He loved the way he had to pull up from it still being attached. He released the muscle, and it fell back down. Blood was beginning to go onto the table slightly, and every now and then, he could hear it drop down. He stuck a finger in the blood, and held it up to look at. He loved the way it glistened. After he was done, he wiped it off on the table.

"Stein! What are you doing?" Mr. Collins said from the boy's doorway.

"What I want to do," Stein said this, his voice dissolving into laughter at the end. Mr. Collins ran over to the boy, so Stein threatened him.

"You take another step, and I shove this through his skull," Stein said this with a large grin on his face, the scalpel placed over his head. Mr. Collins held his arms out in front of himself.

"Look, Stein. I'll stay back."

Stein began laughing, and he brought the scalpel to the middle of the upper part of his chest, carving a line down to the bottom of his abdomen. Everything was open, exposed, and Stein stared down at the boy, taking in the sight of it all. He began poking at his small intestines.

"Stein, you need to stop right now. Put the scalpel down, and step away from Spirit," he said this in a calm yet stern voice, making sure to not trigger the boy, for he knew this could result in the death of Spirit.

Stein did not pay any attention to him, but instead touched the boy's heart. He happened to touch it when it beat, and this sent pleasant chills down his spine.

"Stein, I said for you to get away from him," Mr. Collins said this as Stein began to cut into his spleen. He just laughed, and kept slicing away. Mr. Collins stepped forward to take the scalpel from him, but Stein just drove the knife through Spirit's heart, and blood came gushing out just like his laughter.

Mr. Collins could not believe what had just happened, and was beyond furious about it. Blood poured all over the table, and some began to run over and drip onto the ground. The boy's chest stopped rising as Stein gasped for air. Mr. Collins ran at Stein, and shoved him into the wall.

When Stein felt his back hit the wall, he opened his eyes to see Spirit lying on the table. All he had was a single incision on his side that had already been sewn. Stein stopped leaning into the wall, and sauntered over to Spirit. He sat his head down on the edge of the table as he shook with complete terror, and panted trying to keep his breathing a little steadier.

He did not know how long he had taken, so as soon as he could, he unstrapped the boy and put his shirt back on him. He picked him up more carefully this time, and brought him back into his room. Once he had him in his bed, he pulled his covers back over him and left.

He got to his room and dropped to his knees. His hands slid over his face, and then sobs began to escape the boy. As he continued to cry, his father came and bent down so he was in his face. He began to laugh.

"I guess you really are like me, Franken." After he said this, more laughter came out.

**Oh yeah, did you like my excuse for killing someone without having to loose the character and totally ruin the rest of the story?**

**I forgot to change "{LINE BREAK}" to actual line breaks, so if you saw that that's why.**


	14. An Acquisition of Sanity

**This one is a little shorter since I thought of something, and the way I want it to be written I think it will work a lot better if it's its own chapter, so there is going to be another short one following this. Then I plan to put it back at the regular length.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 14 An Acquisition of Sanity... For the Most Part

After his father had went away, he went over and sat on his bed. He was completely terrified, terrified at what he thought he had done. He knew that it was actually very possible for him to have killed him, and thanked Death that he didn't.

It was also very relieving for him to have seen that he didn't do that to his partner. He couldn't even imagine what would have happened if he had done it. The guilt and terror that would have accompanied it would have been unbearable, and there would be no way that he would ever pull himself out of the madness.

But he didn't, and although he was shaking with terror, he could tell that for some reason the madness had begun to recede. It was almost as if that's what he needed, to cut into something a little bit to relieve the built up tension. His mind was beginning to become slightly clearer, and the noise in his head was getting quieter as well. He reached his hand up and turned the screw, feeling that it actually helped this time.

Shaking and trembling slightly, he moved over and got under his covers. Once he got under he slid down and laid his head on his pillow. The feeling of his mind finally becoming less fogged was extremely relaxing to him, and it allowed him to be calmer. After just trying to focus on the fact that he hadn't actually killed Spirit, he began to stop shaking and most of his fear went away. He closed his eyes, and just felt his mind fill with clarity. He also prayed to Death that he wouldn't have to go through that Hell again.

Even though they were shut, he could feel his eyes get heavy. His mind got foggy again, but not in the same way it had been all day. This kind felt nice in comparison. He rolled over on his side so he was facing the wall, and felt himself relax more. Soon his mind completely fogged over and he was asleep.

He woke up five and a half hours later to the same feeling of clarity that he had felt before falling asleep, which greatly pleased him. When looking at the clock, he saw that it was 8:34 A.M., realizing class had already started. After pushing his covers off, he got up and walked to his door. Opening it, he walked out and went down the hall to his partner's room. When he got there, he opened the door and saw Spirit lying in his bed.

The boy was fairly low in the bed, to the point that his head was just below the pillow. He was lying on his stomach, with his arms stretched out above and in front of his head. As he turned over, his arms remained above him. The way it looked reminded Stein of how he looked on his dissection table. He saw the mark from where he had injected the needle into the boy. He shivered.

After shutting the door, he turned around and left so the boy could sleep. He assumed that he hadn't bothered setting an alarm since he figured he and Stein would not be going to class the next day. Instead of waking him up, he went into his room. When he got there he realized that he had still been covered in blood from the previous day. He grabbed another set of clothes, and sat them in the bathroom. Afterward he took his lab coat down to the basement and stuck it in the washing machine. Once he put the detergent in, he shut the door to the machine, turned it on, and went upstairs.

Shutting the door as he entered, he turned on the bathroom lights. He turned on the water, letting it warm up as he undressed. Once grabbing a towel off a hook on the wall, he sat it next to the shower and got in. The warm water just added to the relaxed feeling he had.

Soon he had a good majority of the blood washed out of his long, gray hair. When he looked down he saw that the water had turned into blood. He knew it wasn't from what he was washing out, as there was too much of it. There was enough that it would have to be coming out as the water had been recently; through the shower head.

He looked up, and saw that it, in fact, was coming out of the shower head. If it was possible for blood to come out of shower heads like that, he would have easily believed it was happening, for his mind still felt clear and he couldn't hear the noise in the back of his head. Those were both things that didn't usually happen when he was hallucinating.

The fact that the madness was still there didn't surprise him at all. It was actually something he expected considering what had happened the previous day. Since he knew blood wasn't coming out, he just continued. Soon the water was actual water again, and he was finished. He got out and dried himself off, then got dressed. After he was fully clothed he grabbed the towel and dried off his hair as much as he could.

He turned off the light, walking out and shutting the door. As he walked down the hall, he realized that he didn't eat a single thing yesterday. He had woken up too late for breakfast, at lunchtime he was busy slaughtering, and he was too zoned out to eat dinner. Actually, he still wasn't even all that hungry, but he knew it wasn't the healthiest to go without food for that long so he went to the kitchen to get something anyway.

* * *

Spirit opened his eyes and sat up in bed, hearing the cupboard doors shut. He pushed off his covers and stood up, walking out to see what Stein was doing. When he got out to the kitchen, he saw Stein looking through the freezer. The boy must have heard him or sensed his soul, for he looked back at the redhead.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Spirit asked.

"Fine," Stein said as he turned back to look into the freezer again.

"That's good," his partner said, trying to keep in mind that he could easily trick him. He wasn't so sure that he had done that, though, as he had noticed that he wasn't wearing his lab coat (which would indicate that it was in the washing machine), and he was no longer covered in blood. There was also the fact that he was looking for something to eat. But nonetheless he knew he still had to be cautious.

"Hey, do you want me to make you waffles or something?" Stein said, holding out a box of waffles to the boy.

"Sure, that would be great. Thanks." After he said this, Stein shut the freezer door and walked over to the counter, setting the box down. He plugged in the toaster, and opened up the box.

"I'm just gonna go to the bathroom real quick," Spirit said this, starting to walk off slowly.

"Alright."

Instead of going to the bathroom, he slipped into his room and grabbed his phone. Then he went into the bathroom, knowing that Stein could possibly use his soul perception and see that he wasn't there but instead in his room, which could lead to the boy questioning him. Once he got to the bathroom, he shut the door and started dialing. He was calling Mr. Collins.

Mr. Collins was also making breakfast, and jumped at hearing his phone ring. He hit his hand off the pan, and felt the hot iron burn him. He winced and rubbed his hand as he walked over to the phone. When he got to the phone, he began to worry because he realized that something else could be wrong.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Mr. Collins." At hearing this, he was slightly relieved because he knew that judging by the way he was talking, nothing urgent was happening.

"Good morning, Spirit. Is there something that you need?"

"Well, I was more wondering what I should do. When I woke up, I heard the cupboards being shut so I went out to check what Stein was doing. When I got there, he was look through the freezer. He had showered and changed his clothes, and his coat is apparently in the washing machine right now. He asked if I wanted something, and now he is making waffles. He really seems like he is fine, but with the way he tricked me yesterday I am not sure if I can believe him."

"It sure does sound like he is himself again, but you're right in saying that you aren't sure." He paused to think. "You're just going to have to watch out for today. If he seems normal throughout the entire day, then he is probably fine."

"Alright, I will make sure I keep an eye on him."

"If you'd like I can stop by a little later and check on him myself."

"That sounds good, but only if you're fine with coming down. That would be the third time you've had to walk up here in the past not even twenty-four hours."

"It's fine. I will be down in a bit," Mr. Collins said this, smelling smoke. He looked over to see that his food had begun to smoke, and he jumped a little.

"Okay, see you later."

"Bye," he said this, quickly hanging up and rushing over to his stove.

* * *

Stein grabbed the plate of waffles and stuck them on the table where Spirit usually sat. Then he got the syrup, and placed it in front of the plate as Spirit walked out.

"You were back there for a while," Stein said, heading back over to the toaster to put more waffles in.

"Yeah, I guess I was. Thanks for making these." As Spirit said this, he began to put syrup on his food. Stein threw out the empty box, and realized he hadn't gave utensils to his partner. He got a fork and knife, and brought them over to the table. Spirit slightly flinched when he sat the knife down, but Stein didn't pay any attention to it.

"It's no problem."

He walked over to the counter where the toaster was, and saw that Spirit was looking at the mark on his wrist. He stiffened slightly.

"Hey, Mr. Science, do you know what this is?"

Stein walked over, hiding the fact that he feared the possibility of him finding out what he had done. He held the boy's wrist up, and made it appear as if he was trying to determine what it was.

"It's just an insect bite. Don't worry about it." Stein let go of the boy's wrist and went back over to the counter.

"Are you sure? It's looks different than that."

"Yes, I am sure," he said this in his regular bland tone, showing Spirit that he knew what he was talking about.

The redhead squinted and looked at the mark up close, but after a few seconds he just shrugged and began to cut into the waffles. He began to wonder what it was like to cut through skin, just out of pure curiosity.

"Hey, Stein, what does it feel like to cut into skin?"

"Do you want to find out?" he asked, looking at the boy.

"No, I'm good." He looked down at his plate, and shoved his fork down into the first part of waffle he had cut.

The next set popped out of the toaster, so Stein grabbed a plate and put them on it. After unplugging the toaster, he went over to the table and sat down across from Spirit.

The redhead watched him put syrup on his, and watched for any possible signs of the madness still being there. He couldn't see any, and thought that if he was pretending he was pretty damn good at it. From the fact that he had been as normal as he had been for this long, he was beginning to assume that somehow overnight he had gotten himself under control and that the wavelengths had went down.

Although everything seemed fine, he still wanted Mr. Collins to come over. Since he had dealt with the boy's father's madness for as long as he had, he would probably be able to tell if something was off better than he could. He knew how easily he had taken down Stein when he had tried to attack, and this reassured him that if anything did go wrong, he would be able to take care of it.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Stein asked, seeing how Spirit was watching him so intently.

"Oh, no." Quickly he looked away from Stein and down at his plate, and just thought to himself more.

Stein's thoughts were directly on how much time he had lost. From yesterday's events he hadn't been able to read, or do any experiments. He didn't count what he had done to Spirit as an experiment, as it was more of a madness driven craving. He hadn't even been fully aware of the entire procedure. The only way it could be used to find out something was to see how self-aware the boy was.

The experiment he was currently working on did require subjects that were at least alive at one point, and he knew that there was no way Spirit would allow him to get any after what had happened. It would be a while before that could happen. So for today he would just have to catch up on his reading.

After they finished, Spirit went to take his plate and knife and fork over to the sink, but stopped when Stein took them from him.  
"I'll get it," he said this, walking over to the sink.

"Thanks."

Spirit stood for a minute, but then started walking off toward the living room. When Stein looked back, he saw Spirit focused on the mark again. He shook his head, and started washing everything.

Spirit stopped looking at it as he plopped down on the couch, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV. As he began to flip through the channels, he saw that almost nothing was on. So he turned it off, and looked over at Stein, who was now getting out a drying rack to set the dishes in.

When he thought of Marie and Kami, he realized that there were probably rumors spread throughout the entire academy. Stein was almost guaranteed to get more funny looks than usually, also from the fact that not many people had seen the screw at that point. He just prayed to Death that Stein didn't try to scare them off; he figured that everyone would be more jumpy around him as well, which was expected.

He sighed as he leaned into the couch and rested his head on his hand, elbow against the arm of the couch.

Stein finished rinsing off the dishes, and put them into the drying rack. Reaching into the sink, he pulled the plug that kept the water from going down the drain. When he faced the counter, he realized he still had to put away the toaster, so he did that and went across the living room.

He saw Spirit watch him go into his room, and then shut the door once he got in. Knowing that the boy could possibly come to check on him, he didn't bother with locking the door to spare his partner the feelings of anxiousness. When he turned to face his desk, he saw his book on anesthesiology sitting on it.

He sat in his chair that was away from his desk from when he had fell out of it the morning before, and slid over in front of the desk. After grabbing the book, he opened it to the page he had currently been at.

Once he had read for a bit, he realized that his coat should probably be done washing at this point. He put a sticky note in the book to keep his place, sat it down on the desk, and got up. When he got through the hall, he saw Spirit asleep on the couch, his right arm dangling over the side.

After getting to the basement door, he went down the stairs and saw that his coat was done washing. He took it out, putting it into the dryer afterward. Turning out the lights as he left the room, he started up the stairs and went back to his room.

* * *

Mr. Collins had just finished getting showered, dried off and dressed, and was going around his house turning off all the lights. He had a habit of leaving them on when he left a room, and usually only remembered to do it before going somewhere.

He went over to the fish tank that sat on a table at the left side of his couch, and fed the betta that lived in it. After he put the food in, he watched as the bright red and teal spotted fish swam up to get the pellets. The fish tried to swallow one, but spit it out back into the tank, swimming over to try to get it again. After the third try, it managed to get it down, and Mr. Collins went over to the table next to his door.

He grabbed the keys that laid on it, and opened his door walking out after. Once he locked it, he stuck the keys into his pocket, sticking his other hand in the other pocket as he started down the stairs.

The man was optimistic that Stein really had been better, but he knew that they still needed to be cautious so he offered to go down and watch him. He knew that if he was, in fact, just tricking them again, he would know the best way to handle it, and could most likely detect it.

As he went down the road, he saw that his neighbor was sitting out on their porch swing. When he went by, she called out to him.

"Good morning, Anthony!"

"Good morning, Mrs. Garcia. How are you doing?"

"I am doing well, thank you for asking."

This lady was in her early seventies, and had been his neighbor for quite some time. He would often go over and help the old couple out when they needed something to be done that they couldn't quite do themselves, and most of the time they didn't even ask him; he just saw they needed some assistance and would come over.

"You've been walking by here more often these past couple days," she said.

"Just going to check on the boys."

"You've always been such a sweetie."

"Thank you, Silvia. Tell Javier I said hello."

"I will do that."

"Have a nice day!" he called up, now farther from the woman's house, making him have to yell a little louder for her to hear him.

He continued up the road, and soon got to Stein and Spirit's road. After a bit, he got to their house. Once he got up to the door, he knocked a few times and waited. Within a couple minutes the door opened, and he saw Stein standing in front of the door.

When he opened the door to see the man standing there, he had a confused look on his face.

"Hello, Mr. Collins, is there something you need?" Stein asked, trying to figure out why he was there.

"Nope, just came to see you guys."

"Oh, well come in," Stein said this, stepping back from the door and going over to the living room.

He went up to the sleeping boy and touched his shoulder, slightly shaking him.

"Mr. Collins is here." As he said this, Spirit jerked up on the couch, remembering that he had fallen asleep.

"Why am I not surprised that you were sleeping?" Mr. Collins asked, walking to the other side of the couch.

"Because you know me too well."

"I suppose I do." After he said this, Stein started off to go back to his room and read more.

"And I am not surprised that he did that," the man said, looking back the hallway that led back to the boy's room.

"Now anyone would have guessed that."

"You're probably right." Mr. Collins took a few steps forward and sat down on the couch next to Spirit. "So he's just been like that?"

"Basically. If anything, better. He's definitely been more productive at least. The closest thing to being creepy he has even done today was when I asked him what it felt like to cut through skin. He just asked if I want to find out, so I gladly declined."

"Are you sure that when the madness left Stein it didn't go to you?" the man asked jokingly.

"Ha-ha." The boy's tone showed sarcasm. "Yes, I am sure."

Spirit reached to grab the remote, and Mr. Collins looked over as he did this, seeing the mark on his wrist. Unlike Spirit, he instantly knew what it had been from. His eyes widened slightly, but when Spirit looked over he made sure they weren't anymore. From the way Spirit had been talking, he knew that he either didn't notice it, or just didn't know what it had been from.

Spirit just looked at the TV and turned it on, trying again to see if anything good was on. As he did this, he began to unconsciously pick at the mark. When he looked over, he saw how Mr. Collins was looking at it.

"Stein said it was just an insect bite and that it was nothing to worry about."

"Of all people, he would know. I am surprised he didn't tell you what kind of insect it was," the man said this, trying to go along with what he was saying.

"Oh yeah, I guess he didn't." He looked back at the TV, and sighed in frustration. "I swear, there is nothing on today."

"I know. I couldn't find anything either," as he said this, he looked back the hall at Stein's door.

* * *

As Stein sat in his room, he realized that the madness was still there more than he thought it had been, but even this was relieve from how it was affecting him before. As he read, he could hear the noise in the back of his head very faintly.

Putting the sticky note back in place, he shut the book and stuck it on the edge of his desk. He propped his elbows on it, and began to run his fingers through his hair. When they had ran through about half the length of his hair, his hands stopped moving and stayed propping his head up.

As he ran them through the rest of the way he leaned back into his chair. From moving back, he had knocked his book off his desk and onto the ground. He leaned down and went to grab the book, but when he was about to touch it the thing basically dissolved. He looked up to see it was still sitting on his desk.

As he sat up, his door opened and Mr. Collins came in. The man sat at the bottom edge of the boy's bed, resting his arms on the footboard.

"Spirit said that you were feeling better today."

"Compared to yesterday, definitely."

"Glad to hear it… Listen, I saw that mark on Spirit's wrist." Stein didn't say anything, but just looked at him.

"Did you, you know…" he said this, making hand gestures along with it.

"Yeah, I did," Stein said this in an emotionless tone. Mr. Collins looked at him, his eyes widening slightly.

"What got you to?"

"I wanted to anyway, but my father had something to do with it."

"How often do you see him?"

"Constantly… I hate it," he said, almost sounding haunted.

"I get why-"

"No, it's not just him… It's everything. It's terrible, all of it." Stein's eyes showed fear. "Last night when I was… cutting into Spirit… You had come and tried to stop me. I told you that if you took another step forward, I would kill him…"

He began to shake.

"When I kept doing more and more, you tried to talk me into leaving him alone… But I wouldn't listen. Then when you came near me to try to take the knife away, I… I killed him…" Stein said, his voice sounding low at the end.

"Oh geez, Stein-"

"You were furious…" There was a brief silence before he continued. "What if I really had done it? What if I do someday? We both know I very well could…" There was another pause. "I couldn't live with myself."

"Listen, Stein, I know me saying this is not going to really be of any help to you. There isn't much you can do about it, but you _need_ to try your best to not do anything to him. That's all you can do; to control yourself as much as possible."

"What if I can't stop myself? What if it's uncontrollable?" Stein asked, his tone of voice now sounding normal again.

"If you can tell you are about to try something, just get away from him. Go into another room or something. If it happens without warning, then just hold on and keep trying until it's over." After he said this, Stein sat there, silent.

"Seriously… If you had him in front of you, in a position that you could do anything to him that you wanted _with_ your dad influencing you on top of that, and you still hadn't done it, I know you can stop yourself any other time." Yet again Stein didn't say anything, and then looked up at Mr. Collins.

"And by the way, next time maybe you should tell him what insect it was that bit him. It would be more convincing," he said this, standing up from the bed and going to the door.

"I will make sure I do that next time."

Mr. Collins looked at him.

"I was kidding."

The man shook his head, a slight smile crossing his face as he left the room. Stein sat for a while, just thinking. He thought of what his teacher had said. All he could do was try his best, and hold on.

He got out a notebook, one of the ones he used for experiments, and began reading through it. Having read a bit of it, he grabbed a pencil and began making revisions to some of the things he had previously wrote down.

After doing this for a bit, he realized that his coat was probably dry by now. He shut his notebook and stuck his pencil on top of it, getting up and opening the door. As he went past the other guys, he saw that they were just watching TV; it appeared to be a show that they had decided was the least worst, and the most bearable to watch.

He started down the stairs, flipping on the lights when he got to the bottom. Going to his left, he went into the next room; the room that they used for doing laundry. Pulling on the door, he opened the dryer and reached in to grab his coat. He took it out, and could tell it had just finished minutes ago by how warm it was.

When he put it on, he could feel the warm fabric touching his cold arms that had been exposed for the morning. He shut the dryer door and slipped his right hand into his pocket, realizing that he never did check to see if his scalpel was in one of the pockets. He stuck his other hand in, and didn't feel it when his hand hit the bottom. He went over and looked in the dryer, but luckily it wasn't in there.

He took his right hand out as he left the room, and flipped the switch off as he started back up the stairs. Halfway up, he stuck his hand back into his pocket once more.

As he went by, Spirit said, "Thank Death, it was weird seeing you without it."

"Imagine how weird _I_ felt without it."

"Stein, wanna make a bet?" Mr. Collins asked.

"What's the bet?" Stein asked, sitting down in a chair that sat turned, next to the couch.

"Let's see if you can go an entire day without wearing your lab coat. It has to be when you're at the academy, so it'll be when you go back. If you do it, me and Spirit loose. If you don't, you lose."

"What's the punishment?" Spirit asked. Mr. Collins sat for a minute, thinking of what it could be.

"Stein's going to like this." He turned to the boy for the next part. "Seeing as how you always have something to dissect, I need you to help me get the most commonly dissected animal."

"The frog," Stein said.

"Yep. Since me and Spirit both find that stuff absolutely disgusting, if we lose we both have to dissect a frog, one frog for each of us."

"And it can't be that you just cut it open and dig around for a bit. You have to, after examining everything, completely gut it; and then you have to take out the brain." Spirit looked sick.

"Okay." When Mr. Collins said this, Spirit eyes widened. "Then if you lose, you will also get to dissect a frog. You will cut it open so that everything is showing, including the brain. Then you have to sneak it into…" He paused to think for a couple seconds. "Mrs. Smith's room, and stick it on her desk. That way when she goes to teach her next class, she will find it there."

"Why would you want him to do that?!" Spirit asked.

"There is always the chance of him getting caught, which would be his punishment… Besides, she borrowed money from me weeks ago and still hasn't paid me back. This'll make us even."

"So you're basically on both of our sides?" Stein asked.

"I guess you could say that."

"Alright, it's a bet," Stein said. Spirit began gasping.

"I never agreed to this!"

"Too late," Mr. Collins said with a slight smirk on his face.

**Alright... Time to get started on the next one. I plan on making this be pretty dang detailed, so I will just have to see if I meet my goal..**


	15. A Bet Beneficial to More Than One

**Man was I lazy with this one... I waited so long to start, but it's done. I actually wrote the beginning scene at like 7:00 A.M. (6 hours earlier than I usually get up on days that I have break), due to by brother coming in and waking me up at 5:50 to look for Easter eggs. -_- But I thank him for the extra time I got from it. Enough of me... Read. Now.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 15 A Bet Beneficial to More Than One

He stood at his dissection table, a single lamp being the only source of light in the room. His hands held onto the edge of the table, while his head was tilted down, hair covering his face. What he could hear was the noise in his head, and a thousand voices combining.

His hand began to twitch, so he tightened it into a fist, and put it down onto the table as if he was punching it, but paused after making contact with the object. After a bit, he began to breathe heavier and heavier until the sound of it became very loud.

Earlier in the day, they all had just sat around and watched TV, made dinner, and watched more TV afterward. He went into his room to read when Spirit wanted to go to sleep, and stood at the door listening to what Mr. Collins was saying to the boy. He heard him say that he was fine, and that he could trust him now. After hearing that, he realized the real reason why he had come to see them.

As the night went on, the madness wavelengths had seemed to have begun to get stronger. The boy had broken from reality a few times on and off while reading, but it wasn't anything like the previous day. Throughout the night, the craving to cut something open also got stronger.

His ability to resist the temptation was beginning to lessen. He made his other hand into a fist, clenching them both then bringing them down to his side. As his lips formed a grin, he clenched his teeth. A single giggle came out.

He began trying to think of a reason not to slice the boy open, but was having trouble coming up with one. This time since the madness wavelengths were far less strong, he would be able to actually do more. If he got himself to stay calm enough, there could actually be more of a purpose to all of it.

After deciding that doing a dissection tonight was a good idea, he grabbed one of his needles and went to the door. After opening it, he went down the hall and saw Mr. Collins sleeping on the couch, his back turned to the boy. Making sure to be quiet, he went down the hall to Spirit's room.

When he got in there, he saw Spirit sleeping in a bean bag chair with his head tilted back, controller still in his hands from when he was playing games. After walking over to him, he carefully and slowly took the controller out of his hands, laying it down on the console making sure to be as quiet as possible.

Sticking his hands in his pocket, he withdrew the needle from it, holding it close to his face to look at the sharp point. He reached down and inserted the needle into the boy's skin, pressing down onto the plunger, releasing the chemicals into him. He pulled the needle out, and stuck it into his pocket.

When looking down at the redhead, he could hear him breathing. After standing for a few seconds, he reached down and picked up the boy. He walked out of the room and went down the hall, stopping to readjust him at the end.

Mr. Collins turned to face Stein, and brought his hand up to itch his nose. Stein quickly took a few steps back the hall, making sure he wasn't visible. He looked around the corner, and saw the man look around. After mumbling a bit, he turned back around.

Once hearing him snore a few times, he went the rest of the way down the hall, going to his room. After walking in, he kicked the door shut behind him, and brought the kid over to the table. When setting him down, he held his head so it wouldn't hit the metal. Just like the night before, he slipped his shirt off and let it drop to the ground.

After positioning him, he strapped him down to the table, then turned on the overhead lights. He grabbed his scalpel, wiping it off from last time.

He brought the scalpel down onto the boy's skin, sliding the blade across in a smooth line. Blood began to pour out onto his skin, a sticky, deep red.

Stein sat the scalpel down and grabbed two glass slides, setting one down next to Spirit. With his free hand, he got a pipette. Bringing it down to the blood, he squeezed the bulb and let go, allowing the liquid to fill.

He released it onto the first glass slide, then after setting the pipette down he grabbed the other slide. When he pressed the second slide down onto the other, the drop spread out further from being compressed. Bringing the slides up to his face, he looked at them in the light, admiring the beautiful liquid.

Next he sat them down next to the table and grabbed his scalpel. Dragging it down further he extended the incision, seeing more blood flow out. When muscle was exposed, he slid his fingers on it, feeling the texture and moisture. All of it was so indescribably invigorating, exhilarating, and pleasurable.

Cutting through the different layers of muscle, the boy's organs became exposed. Stein began making mental notes of which was which just for the fun of it, then started thinking of which one he should examine first. He decided on the stomach.

The stomach has three layers of muscle: an outer longitudinal layer, a middle circular layer, and an inner oblique layer. He cut through the circular and oblique layer, even more blood seeping out an onto the boy's skin. When the organ was completely open, he could see the mucosal lining, which is thrown up into folds called rugae.

With his hand he stretched out the flexible lining, feeling his fingers slide across it due to it being extremely moist from blood and gastric juices. He thought of how all of this was composed and formed, and was in absolute amazement. He was ecstatic, and in a state of complete awe.

Next he looked at the different valves. There were two of them: the first one, the gastroesophageal valve, connecting the stomach to the esophagus; the second one, the pyloric valve, connecting the organ to the small intestines. He wrapped his index finger around the pylorus and brought it up slightly, causing the organs to lift a little, light glistening off them.

His finger slid off, and he decided to move onto something else. He brought the scalpel down on the gallbladder, cutting through the layers of tissues and cell formations. After cutting through the epithelium, he could see the inside of the organ.

Since this organ was a lot smaller than the stomach, there was far less to be seen; nevertheless, the composition and purpose of the gallbladder was still highly intriguing. He could see all of the ducts that extended from it and connected to surrounding organs.

Stein sat the scalpel down for a minute, and brought his hand to the heart. He lightly touched it, feeling it pulse, and the muscles powerfully contract. The feeling of this sent shivers down his spine, and gave him great pleasure.

He wiped his hands off his lab coat, and started digging through his supplies. After pulling out a petri dish, he sat it on the end of the table as to avoid getting blood on it, for a good majority of it was covered in the thick substance at this point.

Once he took the lid off it and stuck it next to the bottom portion of the dish, he grabbed his scalpel and began to cut through some of the muscle from his abdomen wall. Cutting a little portion off, he picked up a pair of forceps and stuck the muscle into the petri dish, shutting the lid and sticking the dish next to the glass slides afterward.

He placed the forceps at the end of the table to be cleaned later, and felt the madness wavelengths increase. It wasn't too bad, so he just continued. After realizing that the needle was still in his pocket, he reached in to grab it. When taking it out, he held it up and read the label on it.

The madness wavelengths increased yet again, and the noise in his head began to get louder. Just as this happened, he realized that he had grabbed the wrong needle, so the dosage wasn't going to suffice long enough, seeing as he still had a lot to do before he was done.

He went to put the needle away and grab another that he would use to keep Spirit unconscious for the remainder of the dissection, when the needle he had in his hand began to feel extremely hot and started burning him. He dropped it onto the floor and held onto his hand, wincing at the pain.

When the needle hit the ground, he realized that wasn't what was heating up, but it was his hand itself. The burning continued and started to get worse, causing him to drop to his knees and have to hold back a scream.

He looked up at Spirit, and saw that he was starting to move a little. The burning stopped and he stood up, walking back to the table. The wavelengths increased once again, and he grabbed onto the edge of the table, blood covering his hands again.

The boy's eyes began to open, and he felt a sharp pain coursing through him from the incisions that had been made. When they were full opened, he saw Stein looming over him holding onto the edge of the table, a grin starting to slowly form. As he realized that he was completely open and exposed, and what exactly was going on, his eyes got extremely wide.

He was going to scream, but right before he did Stein stuck his bloody hand over his mouth. The grin extended across his entire face, and quiet laughter began to come out. Spirit began to shake and sweat.

Stein opened his eyes, realizing that he had been dreaming. He looked over at the clock.

6:47 A.M.

* * *

Spirit had woken up a little earlier than usual, but he didn't necessarily mind. He had been up since 6:23 A.M., and decided to use his free time to play games. First he had gotten ready, then started playing his games.

When he was in the middle of a mission, the game had frozen, and so he began to bang on the console a few times to try to get it to work. After the fourth hit, a ringing noise started coming out of the TV, so he just unplugged the console and decided he was done for the morning.

After taking the game out and sticking it in its case, he went down the hall to Stein's room. When getting there, he saw that he had just woken up.

"Remember to not put your coat on this morning," Spirit said to Stein.

"I will make sure I do that."

After saying this, Stein could tell that he was thinking about his punishment, hoping that he didn't lose. The look of disgust really gave it away, and pleased Stein.

"Do I really have to dissect a frog?" Spirit asked in a whining voice.

"If you lose the bet, yes, you do."

"What if I come up with something better?"

"If you can come up with something better, we can use that. But we can't just think of a new one for you and Mr. Collins; we also have to come up with one for me."

"Deal. Anything as long as I don't have to cut open anything," Spirit said this, walking away beginning to try to think of a better punishment.

Stein got up out of bed and changed into his regular clothes, almost grabbing his lab coat out of habit. After he pulled away, he stood for a second trying to decide what to do with his hands now that he can't stick them in his coat pockets. He just put them in his pants pockets, walking over to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

When he got back, he went over to his dissection table. Looking through every container and drawer, he began to make sure that the dissection really had been a dream. Everything was where it had been before, he still had the same amount of needles, and after looking through everything he concluded that he really had been dreaming.

Spirit walked in, seeing Stein rummaging through his supplies.

"What are you looking for?" the boy asked, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"Oh, nothing," Stein said this, shutting the door to one of the drawers. He walked over to Spirit, pointing out to the hallway.

"You ready to go now?" Spirit's eyebrows raised, and he paused a couple seconds before saying anything.

"Yeah, we should probably get going," Spirit said this, grabbing the boy's coat so he would have the option of giving in and wearing it.

They both went down the hall and out the door. As they started going up the road, Spirit began trying to think of another punishment.

"What if-" There was a brief pause. "No…"

He did this multiple times as they walked down the road, seeming to have a lot of trouble coming up with something half decent.

"How about if you lose, you don't talk for a whole week. And if I lose, you still don't talk," Stein said this, annoyed at the boy's aloud thinking.

"No… That isn't good," Spirit said this, half lost in thought, being enough so that he didn't fully comprehend what Stein had said. Stein sighed when the boy began to go off again.

"I've got it!"

"This should be great," Stein said this, a very caustic tone showing in his voice.

"What? I do. If you lose, then you have to take Marie out on a date." Stein stopped walking. "And it has to be like a real date, not just hanging out or anything." Stein stood for a moment in thought.

"Alright. I'll take Marie on a date, but if you lose you have to go an entire week without flirting with girls."

"You're kidding," Spirit said this in a tone that showed he didn't want to believe he was being serious.

"Nope. Let's just say you have to talk to them the same way I do. No flirting, no interest, nothing." Spirit froze, and his face began to go pale slightly. Then he thought of having to dig around in the frog's guts.

"Fine," Spirit said in a stubborn sort of tone, "anything to get me out of the dissection."

"You're such a baby."

"I am not!" he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry I don't like to cut open and practically torture living things."

"Suit yourself," Stein said this, thinking of last night's extremely vivid and pleasurable dream dissection, almost wishing it had been real.

They got to the academy and started up the stairs, seeing kids standing at the top. When seeing Stein, they all went pale; from having heard the rumors about what happened during the fight in class the other day, along with the screw sticking through his head, they all started making comments on how he had finally lost it.

Stein heard them, and decided to have a little fun with them. He turned the screw three times, watching them all cringe each time. When they stared, he glared and stuck his arms out at them saying, "Boo." They all flinched. To top it all off, he made himself form a grin, and forced out a few giggles.

At hearing this, some of the students ran into the academy, while others got stiff and began to sweat. Stein just smirked, enjoying the reaction he got out of them. Spirit rolled his eyes, not surprised that he had scared them like that.

When getting into the academy, more kids started talking about him. He left these ones alone, and just walked past them while they stared. As he went down the hall, a few kids went to the very side to stay out of his way. It was then that he wished he had his scalpel; for he knew that the instant they saw it, they would all go running for their lives.

When they got to their classroom, Mr. Collins got out of his chair and went over to the boys.

"So I see you haven't given up yet."

"Of course not. It's only been barely two hours."

"Oh, and the punishments have been changed," Spirit said, looking at Mr. Collins.

"Have they?" he asked. "What are they now?"

"If he loses," Stein said this, pointing to his right to Spirit with his thumb, "he has to go a full week without flirting with any girls."

"Ooh. That's gonna be rough for him."

"I don't even want to imagine it… But wait till you hear Stein's!"

"What is it?" the man asked.

"He has to ask Marie out on a date," Spirit said. Mr. Collins instantly started laughing.

"Stein? On a date?" He laughed even more.

"Yes, it's very funny," Stein said this in a sarcastic manner.

"Sorry, I just can't imagine you as the type that goes on dates."

"Neither can I, but Spirit came up with it."

"Why did you even come up with new punishments?" Mr. Collins asked Spirit.

"He was desperate to get out of the dissection," Stein answered for him.

"Should have guessed," Mr. Collins said, smirking at Spirit.

"Come on! Why do you guys think it's so wimpy?"

"I never said it was wimpy. In fact, I know I wasn't really looking forward to it, either. Speaking of me, do I even have a punishment anymore?"

"Oh yeah, I guess we never thought about that. Looks like you're off the hook," Spirit said this, trying to think of how he forgot to give him one.

"Sweet," Mr. Collins said this, then walked back over to the desk since class was about to start.

Stein and Spirit walked over to the desks, then went up to a corner that didn't have many people around it. After they sat down, Marie and Kami came in. They looked around to find where the boys were sitting, then started coming over after spotting them.

When they got up to where they were, Stein moved over since he knew Marie would want to sit by him. Kami sat down to the left of Spirit, and wrapped her arms around him as to hug him.

"I missed you yesterday," Kami said this, burying her head in the curve of his neck.

"I missed you too," Spirit said this, and looked over to see Stein roll his eyes.

"Oh, come on. If you actually cared about someone, you would miss them too."

"Sure," Stein said this, opening to the page of his book that he had currently been on. Marie looked over at him, realizing that he hadn't been wearing his coat like he usually did.

"No coat today?" she asked this in her usual cheerful tone.

"Nope, not today." As he said this, she saw that Spirit had it with him. She assumed that it was just for if he wanted to wear it, which it actually was.

"I like it. It's a nice look for you, Franken."

"Thank you, Marie," Stein said this, trying to be polite.

As he focused on the words on the pages of his book, she focused on his muscles. From all the training he did over the years, he was very well built, and although he was thin, he was still very strong. Marie couldn't help but stare.

The muscles on his arms were very well formed, and she could slightly see his abs through his shirt. She wanted to feel and slide her hands along his arms, but didn't knowing that he wouldn't exactly like that.

"Okay class, today we are going to start a new lesson. You guys have been preparing for this for the last week, getting yourselves ready to be able to do this lesson. Stein, Spirit, you have already learned this, so today will be a study hall for you two."

"Okay," Spirit said to Mr. Tredway as Kami took her arms off him.

"I want everyone to get with their partners." After he said this, everyone began getting with their partners. Stein sat back for Marie to get by, and Kami got up to go to the front of the room.

When they got down to the bottom, everyone was with their partner. Marie and Kami were as well since over the years they both had switched, and were now partners. One day when practicing, they found that they worked better together than their other partners, and so they switched.

Stein read throughout the whole lesson while Spirit watched Kami. At one point he had begun tapping his fingers on the desk, but after a bit Stein reached out and pushed his fingers down. Spirit yelled out from him pressing too hard, and began sucking on his fingers.

Marie kept glancing up at Stein, taking notice of his showing muscles. During one of the times she looked up, she could see that he had goose bumps on his arms from being cold. Every now and then she would see him even start to shake a bit.

Spirit looked over to see this and smirked.

"Do you want this?" Spirit asked, pointing to the boy's coat.

"No, I'm fine without it." Stein said this, continuing to read.

"Are you sure? You'd be nice and warm," Spirit said this in a coaxing tone, picking up the coat and hold it out to Stein.

"I'm sure. I think I can handle being cold for a bit," Stein said this, reminding himself that he didn't want to have to take Marie out on a date, glancing at Spirit for a second. It wasn't that he dreaded her or anything, in fact he found her very kind and pleasant to be around, despite her extremely cheerful and girly personality; he just didn't exactly take pleasure in going on dates.

When class ended, Stein and Spirit headed down to the front of the class to meet up with Mr. Collins. They saw Mr. Tredway talking to Marie and Kami, and wondered what it was about. They both seemed to be happy about whatever it was, so that only made them even more curious.

Mr. Tredway walked over next to Mr. Collins and in front of the two boys.

"These two ladies will be joining you today. I feel that they are progressing enough to start taking lessons from you," he said this, directing his speech to Mr. Collins at the end.

"Good. I have been hoping you would say that," Mr. Collins said this, going to the girls after. "I am looking forward to teaching you two."

"We are glad to have you as an instructor, Mr. Collins," Kami said this, obviously joyed to be moved into special lessons.

"Well, let's go get started then," Mr. Collins said this, walking off and past the boys.

They all started following him out of the room, Marie on Stein's right, and Spirit to his left. Marie was extremely excited that she would now be with Stein for every class of the day; and Kami was excited for the same reason, but because of Spirit, and also from being in a more advanced class.

When they got out to the spot in the woods that they usually use for training, they saw that Azusa and Sid were already there. Sid still had stitches on his neck, the line of sutures forming a square that was missing a side. The boy was turned to face Azusa, and when he turned to see Stein his face went pale. Stein smirked.

"Shouldn't he be locked up or something?" Sid asked this, fearful for his own safety, as well as the safety of others.

"No, Sid, and I don't want to hear anymore remarks like that. You're going to have to work with him whether you want to or not. Today we will be working on resonating as a team," Mr. Collins said this, then turned to Marie and Kami.

"We just started a lesson on how to resonate as a team, but you don't need to worry; you haven't really missed anything. I'm glad that you guys joined us at this lesson. Your souls added on will make the resonance much stronger."

"It's a pleasure to be in your class," Marie said, smiling at the man.

"I have a feeling we'll get along well," Mr. Collins said this then turned to face everyone else. "I want the weapons to transform now."

As he said this, Spirit, Marie, and Azusa all transformed, and their meisters naturally caught them.

"Alright, now I need you guys to really focus. Try and feel everyone else's wavelengths. Start resonating with your partner, then try to reach out to the others."

After he said this, they all began resonating with their partners. Stein and Spirit's resonance was the strongest, by far, and then Sid and Azusa's was second with Kami and Marie's following.

"Stein and Spirit, I want you guys to try to reach out to Sid and Azusa first. You think you can do that?"

"Yeah, I'll give it a try," Stein said this, then began trying to feel the couple's wavelength. As he reached out, their souls began to extend, almost like a stream, and connected with the couple's. The resonance instantly became stronger.

"Good. Now, both of you reach out to Kami and Marie. Girls, I want you to just try to keep your own resonance as strong as possible. If you try to reach out to two groups at the same time or try to focus selectively on one, the resonance is likely to break."

The girls just focused on their own resonance, while the others tried to connect with them. As one large stream reached their resonance, they all instantly broke.

"Try again. It's expected for that to happen the first time."

After he said this, they all started resonating again, the same strength differences present. Stein and Spirit reached out to Sid and Azusa, and the resonance got stronger. They tried to connect with the girls again, but when their souls touched they just wouldn't connect.

This is what they did for the remainder of the class, still unable to resonate as a group at the end. Spirit, Sid, and Marie were perfectly fine with not being able to do it, for Mr. Collins said that it wasn't likely that they would be able to at this point. Kami and Azusa were a little upset, because they were just hard workers and liked to do well. Stein, on the other hand, was pissed that he couldn't get it right.

To him, any skill should be easily mastered in no time. Since that is not always the case, he ends up getting really mad at times that he can't quite get something. He wanted to practice more and more until he got it, but he knew there would be no way that the rest of the group would feel the same way.

"We will try again tomorrow, guys. Even though you didn't master the skill, you still did very well for the first day," Mr. Collins said this as he began to lead the group to the academy.

"It was awesome working with someone other than just my partner," Kami said. "No offense, Marie."

"None taken. I really like getting to work with everyone, too," Marie said this, looking at Stein at the end.

When she looked over, she saw him try to stick his hands in his coat pockets out of habit, but then after realizing he stuck them in his pants pockets. She could tell that he was irritated about the lesson, and decided she would try to cheer him up.

"Oh, come on, Franken. It was only our first day! You'll get it soon."

"I better."

"Trust me, I know you will," Marie said this in a soft tone, looking at his eyes that had an almost harsh look to them at the moment.

Stein said nothing, but just kept walking next to the girl. She pouted at her failed attempt, feeling bad that he was always so hard on himself. From having had to try to cheer him up on so many occasions, she knew he wouldn't budge, so she let him be.

When they got to the academy and were about to go to the cafeteria, Mr. Collins called to them.

"See you guys tomorrow. Have a nice day."

"You too!" everyone except Stein yelled in unison.

When they found the table that was the farthest from everyone, they all sat down but Sid kept walking past. He went back over to see Azusa.

"Hey, aren't we going where we usually sit?"

"No, I figured that knowing them better would be helpful in resonating."

Sid stood for a minute, thinking of how much he really didn't want to sit with Stein.

"Fine, we'll sit here," he said this, taking a seat next to the girl.

While everyone got something, Stein pulled out his book and started reading again, trying to get his thoughts off today's lesson.

"You aren't going to get anything?" Marie asked.

"No, I am just going to read," Stein said this, glancing up at the girl for a minute.

"That's not healthy for you, Franken."

"I'll take my chances," he said this, looking back down at the page of his book.

"Suit yourself," she said this, then walked off to join the rest of them.

As he was reading, he could tell that people were looking at him, and could hear them whisper stuff about him. They had learned to do it quietly by now, so he couldn't tell what they were saying, but he had the common sense to know it wasn't anything pleasant.

From the whispering, it was beginning to get harder to concentrate on reading. He hated everyone focusing on him like that, so it got on his nerves, making his temper worse than it already had been from the failed attempts to resonate as a team. Trying to block out every sound, he just kept reading.

As he was sitting, he could hear one kid say something to his friend.

"Hey, watch this," the kid said, then opened up a carton of milk.

Stein could feel his soul get closer to him. Right as he was about to turn to face the kid, he felt milk pour down on his head, dripping onto his face and down onto the pages of his book. Kids started laughing.

As he slowly stood up, and turned to face the kid, now practically looming over him, one kid said, "You're gonna get it now."

"What are you gonna do about it?" the kid asked, beginning to get nervous at the end from seeing the look in his eyes.

As Stein stood there over the kid, trying to keep himself under control, milk still dripping onto his face, he realized his scalpel was in his coat pocket.

"Just one minute," Stein said, holding his finger up to the boy, obvious anger showing in his tone of voice.

He went around the table to grab his coat, then put it on, not caring about losing the bet right now. As milk dropped to the ground, he watched it fall, then stuck his hands in his pockets, loving the habitual feeling. Slowly walking next to the boy, he threw his drenched book onto the table, then turned to face him. He smirked.

Spirit walked away from the lunch line, looking over his shoulder to talk to Sid. When he looked out to the table, he saw Stein drenched, his hand slipping out of his pocket. He quickly sat down his tray, and ran over to the boy. When he got over to him, he was just withdrawing the scalpel from his pocket, and the boy in front of him was beginning to look terrified.

Spirit stood next to Stein, and touched his shoulder.

"Hey, kid, go. Now," Spirit said this to the kid, pointing over to a general direction at his left.

"Okay… I won't mess with him again," the kid said this, panic showing in his voice, then ran off and sat down next to a group of kids.

Every kid in the cafeteria was looking at Stein while he stood there breathing heavily, complete anger showing in his eyes, while he tried to resist the urge to tear into anything around him; Spirit happened to be that thing.

When Stein looked at Spirit, the boy took his hand off his shoulder.

"Calm down. He was just messing with you."

Stein backed up and sat down, shutting his book as he did so. He put his scalpel back in his pocket, and Marie came over with some paper towels. She offered them to him, but he didn't take them.

"You're all wet," she said this as she wiped his face off. She sat down the wet towel and grabbed another, but when she went to dry his hair off he took the towel from her.

"Thank you, Marie, I can get it," he said this, drying off his hair.

He sat down the soaked towel and grabbed another, then began to wipe off his shirt and pants.

"Let me help you," Marie said this, picking up a towel and reaching over to wipe his shirt off.

A drop of milk that was still in his hair dropped onto his nose. She wiped it off and smiled at him. He couldn't help but smile a little, too, and began wiping off the table. She started wiping the table off as well, and then both of them got up to throw out the towels.

When they threw it out, Stein remembered that he lost the bet, and took this opportunity to ask her since no one would be watching. She went to walk back away from the trash can and over to the table, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Marie, I have been thinking lately, and I was wondering if you would like to go out on a date with me." The minute he said this, Marie's face lit up, and she had the biggest smile he had ever seen. She even began to blush slightly, then wrapped her arms around him.

"Yes, of course I would!" she said this, joy oozing out of her. He let her hold onto him, and just smiled at the amount of emotion that was coming out of her.

She stopped hugging him and grabbed onto his one hand, taking the remaining towel out of his other and throwing it out for him. Dragging him behind her, she started off to their table to tell everyone, mainly Kami, what he had just said.

When they went to their table, they passed the kid that had dumped milk on Stein. With his free hand, he smacked the kid upside the head as hard as he could, following Marie as he did so. He smirked at the kid's cry of pain.

As they got to the table, Marie stopped in front of everyone else, swaying her and Stein's arms back and forth very slightly.

"Guess what, guys," she said this with the same smile on her face, looking as if she were about to explode with happiness.

"What?" Spirit asked in a smug tone, knowing exactly what it was that she was about to say.

"Franken and I are going on a date!" she said this, pulling the boy around to where they were previously sitting.

Everyone except for Spirit's face looked shocked.

"That's awesome!" Kami said this, seeming to share some of Marie's joy. "Maybe this means we could start going on double dates." After she said this, she wrapped her arm around Spirit's back.

"Yeah! We have to do that!" Marie said this, clearly thinking it was an excellent idea.

"Yeah, maybe we will have to," Spirit said this to Stein, smirking at him.

Stein just shook his head, realizing that he and Marie were still holding hands. From how happy she was, he figured that even if he tried to get out of her grasp, she probably wouldn't let go. She was even beginning to hold on kind of hard.

"Make sure you search him for chloroform before you guys leave the house," Sid said this, teasing Stein. Azusa smacked him in the arm.

"He is actually showing an interest in something other than science. Leave him alone."

"Alright, but I'm just telling you, Marie. Watch out."

"Oh, shut up, Sid. He won't do anything to me. He's too sweet for that," she said this, smiling at him at the end.

"You never know," Spirit said this, joining Sid just to see if he would react.

"If it would make you feel better, and to make these guys shut up, you can search me all you want."

"It won't be necessary, Franken. Those boys are just idiots. I trust that you won't do anything."

For the rest of break, Marie excitedly chattered while Kami joined her in conversation, Spirit and Sid making remarks every now and then, Azusa basically just listening. As they went to their next class, Marie held onto his hand and smiled just as bright as she had been since he asked her out. When they were going, Mr. Collins saw them together, so he stopped Spirit.

"Looks like he lost," Mr. Collins said as he touched Spirit's shoulder and pulled him back. This startled Spirit, so he turned around holding his arms in front of him as if he were about to karate chop the man.

"Oh, it's you… Yeah, he lost. He did it to get to his scalpel, though."

"What made him want it?"

"This kid was stupid enough to come up behind him and pour milk all over him and his book."

"Oh, Death, what was that kid thinking?" Mr. Collins said this, bringing the palm of his hand up to his forehead.

"I have no clue. He was probably just trying to impress his friends."

"Probably. Now get to class," he said this, trying to make himself sound stern and serious.

"You suck at being stern."

"I know. Just get going already," Mr. Collins said this, pushing Spirit.

* * *

Stein and Marie sat down in Mrs. Smith's room next to each other, Kami at Marie's left. When Spirit came in, he sat to the girl's right.

During class, Stein realized that he never did think of where he would take her. After giving it some thought, he had come up with where he would take her. He looked over at her, and she smiled at him, so he smiled slightly back at her, which made her even happier. He didn't understand how she could have possibly been as happy as she was, so her reactions perplexed him a bit.

Spirit wanted to laugh at how he was acting, seeing as how he was smiling back, but held back as to avoid getting punched or having his eyes gouged out. He really didn't want that. Instead he just stuck with shaking his head and listening to the teacher again.

At the end of class, Mrs. Smith saw how Marie grabbed onto Stein's hand again. When they both got down to the bottom, she asked them about it.

"What's this, Franken?"

"He asked me out!" Marie said this, answering for him.

"Did you really?" she asked, seeming to have a slightly hard time believe it, the other half of her just wanting to hear him say it out loud.

"Yes, I really did," Stein said this, reaching up with his free hand to turn the screw three times.

"This has to be the most normal thing I have seen you do."

"I know! He just completely surprised me in the cafeteria. He's such a sweetie," she said this, beginning to drag him to their next class at the end.

After getting to Mr. Reignhardt's class, they listened to his lesson for the day, slightly eager to get out just from having been at school all day. Lucky for them, the class went by unusually quickly.

When they got out and went through the academy doors, Marie looped her arm through his, and he brought her over to the side.

"I never did tell you where we were going."

"Oh yeah, I guess you didn't," she said. "What do you have planned?"

"How about I make it a surprise." As Stein said this, Mr. Collins came over.

"I hate to break you love birds up, but I need to talk to Stein and Spirit," Mr. Collins said this, receiving a glare from the love bird remark.

"I'll come back over when we're done," Stein said this, slipping his arm out of hers.

Stein followed Mr. Collins over to Spirit, glad to finally be able to breathe and have both his arms free. He stuck them in his pocket, enjoying being able to have both rather than just one of them in.

"I know this is on short notice, but there is a mission that you guys have been signed up to go on."

"Where is it?" Spirit asked.

"You'll be going to Liechtenstein. Ha, your name's in it."

"Ha-ha, how funny," Stein said this in a sarcastic tone.

"I know. I'm hilarious, aren't I?"

"Yes, very. You crack me up."

"Glad to entertain you," Mr. Collins said this as he started to walk off.

"Wait, who are we even fighting?" Spirit asked.

"There really was no name, just a location where you could find him. Which reminds me, I need to give you this," Mr. Collins said this, walking back over to give them a paper.

They both looked at it, seeing an address.

"How are we supposed to find him if we don't even know his name?" Stein asked, looking up from the piece of paper which the address was on.

"I've heard about this guy, and trust me when I say you'll know it's him when you see him," he said this, then started to walk off again.

"Could you at least tell us about him then?" Spirit asked.

"Nah, I wanna go home. You'll be fine." As he said this, he continued off.

"Whatever, we'll see when he get there," Stein said this, looking at the paper again.

He handed it to Spirit, then went back over to Marie.

"I have to go on a mission tomorrow, so our date will be Friday night. Does 7 o'clock sound good?"

"Yep, I can't wait!" Marie said this, wrapping her arm around his yet again.

**I just hope I didn't make Stein too into the romance stuff. That is what I fear doing the most in the upcoming chapters. I already have the next 3 or so planned out for the most part, so I shouldn't really take too long if work well. I have the weekend starting tomorrow, so I will get time from that. But yeah, let us just hope I don't make the boy get too ****lovey dovey.**


	16. The Mysterious Opponent Is Who?

**Yes, I am still alive... and lazy. Anyway, I had this done like a week ago but never posted it, and I had the idea for months prior to this. I didn't even know I would be doing it until _right_ before I started writing the first bit. I did the first third in one night, and the rest months later. The thing that I like the best about this is that I set everything up for it in the chapter before, but didn't even realize... Anyway, I hope you like the little cliffhanger I did and also hope you don't want to rip my throat out for who I made their opponent be. Now read it.**

Not Strange, Just Different

Chapter 16 The Mysterious Opponent Is… Who?

They walked down the road, seeing a farm not far off. The temperature was lower than what they had been used to back in Death City, but it was tolerable. Across the horizon, you could see the sun coming up from behind surrounding trees. Making sure they would get to the place as early in the day as possible, they left at an extremely early time. After getting to Triesenberg, they decided to ask around to see if they could find out how to get to the place where this guy was.

"This better be worth it. I don't want to get there and find out that I got up ridiculously early and walked in the cold just to fight some wimp," Spirit said, his breath showing in the air as he spoke.

"I don't care about the time, but it is cold. Besides, I prefer a challenge over someone that can be taken care of in 0.5 seconds. It defeats the whole purpose of traveling for hours."

"I know. I was so pissed that one time when we went to the Czech Republic and found out it was just to take down some shrimp."

"We seriously didn't need to be the ones to take care of that," Stein said, showing the same agitation as his partner.

"Anyway, let's just hope it doesn't take forever to get to. I'm in the mood for a good fight."

"You're right. I always love a good morning ass kicking," Stein said, cracking his knuckles.

"You'd kick ass any time of the day."

"I won't argue against that." He smirked.

"Hey, when we get up to that farm let's ask that guy," Spirit said, pointing to a man standing near the fence that bordered his land, giving his dog a bath.

"Alright, works for me."

After agreeing on this they continued down the road and stopped once they got to the man. As they got closer, the tail on the Border collie that the man was bathing started going back and forth, showing his excitement. When the man saw what his dog was doing, he recognized the sign and turned around to see who it was.

He appeared to be in his late 50s, and fairly fit and healthy from doing work around the farm. His hair was a light blonde, and his blue eyes showed that he was an extremely kind person.

"Sir, we were wondering if you could take a look at this address and tell us if you know how to get there," Spirit said, holding up the piece of paper that Mr. Collins had written it down on. The man looked confused.

"Was?" the man asked.

"Wir haben uns gefragt, wenn Sie wüssten, wie man hier zu bekommen," Stein said, taking the paper out of Spirit's hand and handing it to the man. Spirit gave him a weird look.

He wiped his wet hand off his pants and took the paper from Stein's hand, examining it. After reading it, a different look came across his face. He stood for a second, then looked at Stein. The odd look never left his face when he handed it back to Stein.

"Nun?" Stein asked.

Spirit gave him another look. "What the hell, Stein?"

"Shut up," Stein said, then looked at the man and spat out more gibberish.

Spirit listened, trying to make sense of what they were saying. He hated not knowing what they were saying, and it was beginning to make the boy uncomfortable. Due to having a short attention span, he quickly stopped paying attention. He looked down at the dog, who also seemed to have a short attention span, for his head was zipping back and forth in an attempt to watch the birds that flew by, tempted to chase after them.

He heard more gibberish, and although he couldn't tell what they were saying he could still tell by the tone of Stein's voice that he was finishing talking to the man.

"Vielen Dank, Sir," Stein said, folding the paper in half and sticking it in his coat pocket.

"Klar, und viel Glück damit," the man said wishing them good luck, continuing washing his dog with the same doubtful expression.

"Where did that come from?" Spirit asked sounding truly surprised.

"My dad taught me some when I was little. This is Liechtenstein, you shouldn't be too surprised that the people here wouldn't understand English."

"That's not what I was surprised about, and I am guessing 'some' is an understatement?" Spirit asked. "That was flawless. He had to have taught you more than 'some'."

"Okay, a lot. Why does it even matter?"

"Because it took me this long to know that you even spoke a second language!"

"My father was Franken Stein. You should have basically expected it, Spirit."

"Yeah, I guess."

"I am deeply sorry that I forgot to tell you, honey," Stein said as if they were a married couple.  
"You should be," Spirit said, using the same sarcastic tone.

"Can we move on now? That guy told me how we can get to this place."

"He did? It was all gibberish to me."

"Of course it was, but yes, he gave exact directions."

"Well, before we go there could we stop and eat something? I didn't have anything before we left."

"And whose fault is that?"

Spirit sighed. "Mine. Can we just go somewhere?"

"Yeah, I don't care where we go just as long as this guy's dead by the time the sun goes down."

"Although I don't necessarily disagree, why does it matter if he's dead before the sun goes down?"

"I don't want to be here all day, and that seemed like a reasonable time to say."

"True that," Spirit said, his head moving slowly to the side, following a bird. Stein looked back and saw what he was watching.

"Are we going?"

Spirit blinked as if coming out of a trance. "Yep," he said, and started walking down the road. Stein rolled his eyes then followed after him.

* * *

The two boys walked down the street, looking through the windows of the various stores and shops that lined it. In his reflection, Stein saw the same thing the surrounding people had been staring at the whole time since they had gotten into the main part of town: his screw.

"I swear, I'll never get used to people constantly watching me," Stein said shoving his hands in his pockets, looking back to Spirit, whom was following just behind him.

"I don't blame you. I know I wouldn't want people eyeing me like that. You know, sometimes I feel you have reason to want to hurt people. Maybe then they'd leave you alone."

"My point exactly. But no, 'violence doesn't solve problems'," Stein said in a mocking voice.

Spirit shook his head. "Listen to what I'm saying. I'm agreeing with your sadistic thoughts."

Stein smirked. "Hmm… Maybe I'm starting to rub off on you."

"Please don't say that."

"Before you know it, you'll be running down the halls of the academy with me, hoping to catch your prey."

"I said don't!" Spirit yelled, shuddering.

"What have I said before?"

"'If you tell me not to do something, that'll only make me want to do it more.'" Spirit said in monotone in memory of his partner's saying.

"Good boy, Spirit."

Before Spirit could come up with a remark, Stein stopped walking in front of a café.

"Does this look good? It doesn't appear to be overly trashy or anything."

Spirit sighed, giving up. "Yeah, we can go here."

Spirit went in front of Stein and opened the door, bringing is arm out to lead the way.

"There you go, my dear."

"Watch it," Stein said, entering the building.

"You're no fun, Stein."

"I know, I can be such a drag, can't I?" Stein looked at the boy.

"Yes… Now stop looking at me." Stein looked away, causing the boy relief.

"What do you want?"

Spirit looked up at the menu, then after a minute looked at his partner with a blank expression.

"You know I can't read that."

"Yep, I know," he said, now looking up himself. "How about trying something you've never had before?"

"What do you have in mind?" the boy asked wearily.

"Something simple…" he said contemplating. "Schnitzel and fries?"

Spirit looked up at the menu searching for the word "schnitzel," and saw the picture located next to it. "Yeah, that doesn't look like it could be too bad… Oh! They seem to have a lot of beer. I want that."

Stein looked at him as if he were about to smack him. "No."

"Why not?" he asked in a whining voice.

"Do you remember what happened when you had an energy drink? This would turn out _much_ worse. This is partly for your own good, and partly for others. When I said I wanted to be done as soon as possible, that meant I don't want to take the time trying to get you out of trouble."

"What? I needed some way to stay up. I hadn't slept in two days. Besides, you have to admit that got my soul wavelengths going faster. It helped it."

"Listen to me when I say this: It wouldn't have the same affects."

"Fine," the boy said, crossing his arms. "I'll go get us somewhere to sit."

"Thanks, have fun," he said then went up to order.

Spirit went over to a table in the corner of the room, one that had only two chairs. When he sat down, the sun came through and got in his eyes, so he got up and went to the other seat. Better.

Then he started thinking. Why had that man looked so spooked? He would need to ask Stein everything he had said to see if there might be something that could help explain this.

Soon Stein came back with everything, and sat down in the chair across from Spirit, squinting when light got in his eyes the same way it had for Spirit. He just put his hand up, trying to ignore it.

"What's that?" Spirit asked, pointing to the thing Stein had ordered.

"It's called Käsknöpfle. It was one of the few things that my dad had ever made for me."

"Hmm… Interesting. I have a question."

"What is it?" his partner asked.

"The guy back there, what all did he say? He seemed to be pretty freaked."

"Well, first of all he was wondering why we were trying to find this place. When I told him that we were from the DWMA and that we were sent to take care of the guy that's there, he gave me a weird look. At least one that was weirder than the one he had already made, anyway.

"He told me that the address leads to an old warehouse. Apparently the place hasn't been used in years, which makes it the perfect place for someone hoping to become a kishin to use as their base of operations, I guess you could say. It's not too awfully far off, so it shouldn't take too long to get there."

"How long do you think it would take?" Spirit asked as he picked up a fry.

"No longer than a couple hours. We just have to go through some back ways, so that's gonna add onto the time that it's going to take to get there."

"Sounds good. Do you have any plans on how we're going to take this guy down? He's probably gonna be a tough one from what we know so far."

"I was thinking about that. Since I really don't know anything about this guy, I really can't come up with a strategy yet. I'll probably just have to do it once we get there, after I've had a chance to check him out. What I do know, however, is that we're going to have to be on our game today. We'll have to work together well."

"No doubt about it. I'm just curious about him. In a way, I don't want to see what this guy is gonna be capable of."

"I do. I think it's about time that we have a real challenge for once. I'll probably regret saying this later on, but let's say that if we successfully defeat this guy before the sun goes down, like I said I wanted earlier, with time to spare and a minimum of 3 injuries of any kind, I'll get you a beer before we leave for home."

"That sounds like a plan… I will get beer," Spirit said with a serious, determined tone in his voice.

"Besides, it'll be after the mission so there won't be as much for you to screw up."

"Normally I would take offense, but sadly you're right in saying that."

Once they finished eating, Spirit grabbed all of their trash and threw it out. The sun was getting higher up in the sky, meaning that time was going by and they would need to get moving if he was going to get his beer… or at least if he wanted a better chance of getting it, anyway. There was always a chance of the injury rule crushing his chances.

Now that he thought of it, three wasn't all that big of a number, especially when you don't know exactly what you're up against. And this man had certainly given off quite an impression so far.

Spirit got back over to Stein and asked, "You ready to go?"

"Yep. Let's go find this guy and kick some ass."

They walked out of the café turning right, heading down the rest of the street. When they got to the end, Stein also took notice in how the sun was getting higher. Although he wasn't particularly worried about Spirit not getting his beer, he still didn't want to take long. He quickened his pace slightly, and Spirit did so as well.

After they had walked for quite a bit, Spirit realized Stein was extremely accurate when saying that they would have to take back ways. He was surprised that they hadn't gotten lost yet, and hoped that it wouldn't happen on their way back. Then a thought crept into his mind: _If we even come back._

He shook his head, reminding himself that he can't let this guy get in his head. If he would ever have to be focused on a mission, this would be the one. As they walked along, he tried taking some breaths to help calm himself down. It'll be fine, he thought.

* * *

It had been two hours since they left the café, and they were still walking. Stein knew they would be approaching soon, and he wasn't concerned with being lost. The man's directions had been thorough and surprisingly easy to follow. It was just taking longer than expected.

Although he was getting a little sick of having to reassure Spirit that they weren't lost, he was pleasantly calm. He thought it was the upcoming ass kicking of a life time that he would be giving his opponent, but he wasn't sure. All he knew was that he wouldn't argue against it; he always did his best when confident.

"Don't worry Spirit, we're almost there," Stein said, yet again.

"Are you sure? You have been saying that for the last hour."

"Yes, I am sure. Before it was just an attempt to get you to be quiet, but I guess it didn't work. Anyway, that farmer we saw earlier gave me exact directions, and we're almost to the end of them. Just a few more streets to go on and we'll be there."

He was almost excited. They hadn't went on a mission in forever, and they needed to be collecting more souls if they wanted to complete their goal. They still had a bit before Spirit could be turned into a death scythe. Plus, he was eager to see what they would be up against. In a way, he hoped the guy would be a tough one. The slight fear he felt when fighting usually gave him a bit of a rush, and seeing the opponent's skull split always topped it off, like the icing on a cake.

Stein turned onto the last row leading Spirit, and, just as the man said there would be, there was a large warehouse. It was easy to tell that it had been vacant for years, and that no repairs had been made since the current resident had come.

There were no lights around whatsoever, which made the boys thankful the sun was out, or else it would have been a hell of a time trying to find a way to get in. The bricks that composed the walls of the building were chipped in many areas, being more severe in some places than others. Also, most of the windows appeared to be broken in… and boarded over.

Stein stepped back from the building and against the one behind it, which was apparently not in use, to get a better view of the big building. After searching it, he went around to the right of the building. Then he came back over to Spirit.

"What were you looking at?" Spirit asked.

"The windows. I was trying to see what was covering them exactly, and it seems as if there are multiple thick, large wooden boards covering the windows. In other words, soundproofing." After he said this, he saw Spirit get a little more tense, getting the same feeling about this as he was.

"Let's try to find a way into this place. I'll take the right, you search the left. Be careful, and try to be quiet."

"Okay…" Spirit said almost quietly.

Leaving Spirit to search out his side, Stein went off to his. As he went around, he looked more closely at the windows. He saw that the outer part of the sill was lined with large razors that looked as if they had been wonderfully sharpened. This man knew what he was doing.

When Stein went to take a step toward a lower window, he almost fell through the ground. Placing his hands against the wall of the building he caught his balance, then took a step back. Crouching down, he inspected the hole in the ground. It had been dug there on purpose, that was obvious, for there was a ridiculous amount of sharp objects—knives, spears, swords, even saw blades—embedded at the bottom of the deep pit, which had been expertly covered. Even Stein, with his super observatory skills, didn't notice anything off. He realized it was intended to stop anyone that managed to get out of the lower window, which was directly above.

He moved on, making sure to both look and step more carefully. When coming upon another low window, he checked for another pit just to see if there would be one there, as well. There was, but this one wasn't exactly the same. It seemed to lead somewhere, probably back to the building, but he didn't intend to find out any time soon.

When he got to the back of the building, he saw that Spirit had also gotten to the end, so he walked over. The boy had a look of fear on his face, but he explained it for him.

"The ground fell in over there!"

"I know. I happened on my end too."

"You don't even wanna know what's at the bottom of it…"

"I'm sure I don't. Did you find any way to get in?"

"The only thing that _would_ seem to be doable is go in through windows, but the pits and boards make it impossible."

"This is usually highly advised against, but I think we're gonna need to take a look at the front door. If it's anything like the rest of what we've seen, there will be some kind of trap there, too."

But surprisingly there wasn't. It was just shut up very well. Stein really didn't like the way they would be getting into this place, as it could very well alert their opponent of them being there, but he didn't see any other option. Well they could try going down the one pit he had found to see where it leads to…

Stein kicked the wooden door extremely hard square in the center, and both of them could see large cracks form down the center most of the way up and down. One more kick is all it would take. So he kicked again, but harder this time to ensure it wouldn't take any more force after that. It broke in. The wood broke into several pieces both large and small. Spirit winced at the noise it made, but knew there really wasn't anything that could have been done.

Right when they went in, they could tell there was something off about the place. It looked as if the man currently here hadn't cleaned during the entire time he had been there. Plus, the contents alone were enough to warn of trouble. There was glass everywhere, shimmering as if someone had just thrown glitter all over the floor. Although it wasn't surprising to find glass in an old warehouse, it was surprising when a good majority of it was covered in dried blood.

The place had shelves lined up along the walls, but now they were all tipped over, looking as if it had been done in a bout of rage. Also, down the long hallway, there were only four dim lights. It made it fairly hard to see. Because of this Stein and Spirit (especially Spirit) walked through carefully. Stein looked to his left, seeing a broken chair lying on the ground. Frayed rope was looped around the back of it.

When they got to the end of the hallway, Spirit stepped on something. It made a snapping noise, not that far from the sound of a branch breaking. He looked down, and Stein thought it looked as if all the blood had gone out of his face. It had been a bone.

"A femur," Stein said almost whispering.

Spirit jumped back and walked around the bone, which had been partially covered in dried blood and a small amount of tissue. He wanted to vomit, but kept himself from doing so.

"I hate this place," Spirit said.

* * *

Souls. Two of them, approaching from the right hallway.

The man looked down at his current victim, admiring what he had done so far, much the way an artist regards his work. He studied him—the long slashes, the gouge marks, large bruises, lots and lots of blood. The current work was pleasing.

"I hate to have to pause here, but it can't be helped. However, I can give you a quick preview of what is to come once I get back."

The man pulled out a simple lighter, lit it.

The fear in the man's eyes: one of the most beautiful sights.

He grabbed onto his head to keep him from moving, and ran the fire over his face nice and slowly.

The man's screams of anguish: _the_ most pleasant sound.

After burning a sufficient amount of flesh on the right side of his face, he put the lighter away.

"I'll be back soon. I just have to go take care of a few people," the man said, smirking. He turned around, putting the lighter in his pocket (walking away while doing this). When he exited the room, the helpless victim felt a slight feeling of momentary relief. The psycho can't touch him if he's not in the room. Thank Death. Then his breath caught when the man peaked back through the door.

"Maybe when I get back I'll get the gasoline!" he screamed to the other side of the room to his piece of work. His face went white. What a nice reaction. The man grinned before leaving.

The piece of work threw his head back, sobbing.

* * *

Stein and Spirit walked down another hallway and stopped to look at the place. There was more bloody glass, and bones as well, just like the one Spirit had stepped on earlier. There was blood, stored in jars, lined up on shelves, like trophies. On lower shelves there were organs in jars.

"Who the hell would want to collect this stuff?" Spirit asked, covering his mouth afraid that he would finally, actually vomit at the sight of it all.

"Beats me. Sure I like to look at the stuff, but I can't see myself collecting it and putting it all up on display like this guy did."

As soon as Stein finished saying this, they heard long, pained screams coming from far off. Both of them exchanged a look. They both knew that's where the guy would be.

"Let's go in the direction of the sound," Stein said, starting to move forward. But before they got very far, they stopped and it was silent again.

"We'll just have to try to remember where it sounded like it came from and take our best guess," Stein said, looking over at Spirit.

* * *

The man came down a hallway, almost to where the two souls he had sensed were. He approached another piece of work, this one female. In a way, he like those ones better; in a way, they were worse. It was the screams. They could be whiny at times, but the positive thing was that they sounded a lot more pitiful, showed just how weak they were.

She saw him approaching, and immediately starting squirming, although she knew it would do no good. Her only thought was, "What's he going to do to me this time?"

She went to scream, so he went up to her. He placed a bloody hand over her mouth and said, "Shhh," in an almost comforting tone. Then with one quick movement, he grabbed his large, sharp machete and cut her throat right open. Blood poured out, and he watched as it dripped to the floor. He grinned, and felt slightly relaxed, listening to it continue to pour out.

A blue, glowing soul came out of the woman, and he grabbed it. He stood for a moment, forgetting his next targets, coddling the soul in his hands. Holding the soul up to his mouth, he stuck it in and swallowed. The soul slid down his throat, a feeling he could never get enough of.

"They were stupid enough to think meisters couldn't consume souls."

Sensing the souls getting nearer, he remembered what he had left his fun for. He had to finish them off quickly so he could hurry back and show a man what it feels like to burn from the inside out.

As he started forward the approaching souls, he stopped, seeing them come around the corner.

"I wasn't expecting that," he thought.

* * *

The two boys got to the end of a hallway, but stopped.

"I can sense his soul. He's just down the hallway we'll be turning into next."

As soon as Stein finished saying this, they heard a sweeping sound, and then a liquid sound. Something was dripping. They both guessed what it was, and Spirit winced.

"I can't take this place anymore. Let's finish this guy and get the heck out of here, okay?"

"We can try." Stein said, not as sure that it would end quickly as he was when he first got there.

Stein went around the corner, Spirit following right behind. When seeing who was coming forward his jaw dropped very slightly, he stopped in his place, and his eyes widened a bit. Spirit didn't know he was going to stop, so he continued going and ran into Stein, his head hitting the back of his partner's.

"Gee, Stein, why did you stop like that?" he said, rubbing his forehead. He stopped when he saw the blood-drenched man that they had been waiting to see all day.

Stein asked, "Dad?"

**So... What did you think?**


End file.
